The Ocean's Job
by Elle-05
Summary: Ocean's 12 Italian Job Xover A lot can be changed by something like a phone call. the story is set towards the beginning of Ocean's 12, Linus centered, COMPLETE.
1. The Phone Call

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Summary: This is an Ocean's 12 and Italian Job crossover, starts of as Ocean's 12 but a phone call changes everything.

Authors Note- Hey guys, I couldn't remember if Danny and Rusty knew about Toulour yet so let's just say that in this story they did.

* * *

The Phone Call- 

Rusty knew he was going to enjoy this, the kid was damn gullible fooling him would be no problem. Rusty looked at Matsui across the table, in the dingy bar, and made sure he could keep a straight face.

"A doctor who specialises in skin disease will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television." Rusty had just finished his sentence when a mobile let out a sharp ring, Rusty's eyes darted to Linus as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, a look of surprise crossed Linus's face as he looked at the screen, and without a word he jumped up and headed for the door.

Rusty exchanged a look with Danny, he seemed as confused by the kid's behaviour as Rusty was.

"What was that about?" Matsui mumbled leaning back in his chair, not leaving the other two time to answer he slapped his hands down on the table. "Doesn't matter, he seems to be falling for it. Anyway we'll pick up when he gets back. Moving on to real business…"

For the next fifteen minutes they discussed the job, Rusty felt irritated, and he knew Danny did as well, these jobs probably wouldn't make enough money in the time they had, but it was better than nothing.

Matsui lent back in his chair and looked towards the door as if expecting Linus to come through the doors any minute now, "When'll he be back?" Matsui looked at Danny as if expecting him to know the answer. Danny shook his head and picked up his coat. Following Danny's lead Rusty and Matsui headed for the door.

The European air chilled them as they left the overly heated bar and looked around for Linus. They couldn't see him anywhere.

"Guess he must have gone back to the hotel," Danny said in a confused voice. Matsui looked disappointed, and Rusty knew it was because he had missed out on a chance to make a complete fool out of a newbie.

Sighing Matsui turned to Danny and Rusty shaking his head, "Oh well, I'm gonna go, call me when you've got it." Waving he moved forward and disappeared into the crowd.

Danny took one last look around for Linus before turning his gaze to Rusty, "Any ideas?"

Rusty shrugged "Guess it was an important call." He answered "Anyway, he can look after himself."

"I think Reuben would disagree there,"

"Probably"

"We have to talk to LeMarc"

Nodding Rusty went with Danny to hail down a taxi.

* * *

As they walked up the drive to LeMarc's house Rusty could see that the door was open. After knocking a few times Danny opened the door and led the way inside and though to the back of the house. They had only been here a few times but LeMarc had always liked being out the back, where he could look at the ocean while they talked. 

As Rusty went through the house he admired the art, it was all old, and mostly originals, he supposed LeMarc had stolen it himself. LeMarc was the best and it was unfortunate that Toulour had been taught by him, that fact alone would make him a challenging accomplice. However Rusty felt pretty confident, they had a good team (the best), they had inspiration, and now they had a plan (not the best one perhaps but it was something).

Rusty remembered when they had first met LeMarc, it was about 2 years before Danny married Tess. They were doing a job with Bobby and Reuben in Florence, Bobby and Reuben had more or less been trained together before branching out on their own, and one of their teachers had been LeMarc. Bobby thought it would be good if they met him since they were copying a job that he had pulled 20 years prior to that, a rendition of a Helena's hand basket with a bit of a bakers dozen thrown in. Rusty hadn't really liked the guy at first, respected him yes, but he was definitely not one of Rusty's favourite people.

As they reached the back porch they could hear voices.

"But, I thought they were on vacation,"

Rusty looked at Danny who seemed just as confused as he was, that sounded like Linus. Why was he here? Did he know they were coming? And, how did he know LeMarc in the first place? Of course the third question was easiest to answer, Bobby must have introduced them at sometime, which was also odd as until Vegas himself and Danny hadn't even known that Bobby had a son.

Another voice broke though their confused haze, this one older, and more 'rusty' sounding, definitely LeMarc, "Well, from what I hear it started as a vacation, but Charlie needed some help, so he called Bobby, it was an easy job."

Sure enough as Rusty stepped outside he could see LeMarc sitting at a small table looking towards the kid with a worried and somewhat sad look on his face, the kid was by the pool he had his back to them and Rusty couldn't see his face.

As Danny stepped onto the patio LeMarc turned to look at them, and nodded slightly in greeting. "I think I can guess what brought you two out here." LeMarc motioned with his hand for them to take a seat.

Casting a confused look at Linus who had made no sign that he was aware they were there Rusty followed Danny towards the table.

LeMarc glanced at Linus once more before turning to Danny and Rusty. "Has Toulour approached you yet?"

"No, we were planning to see him tomorrow." Danny answered smoothly, being sure to keep eye contact with LeMarc.

"Fair enough," LeMarc answered "However I would suggest that Danny goes on his own this time, I have a feeling it's personal."

"Why would you think that?" Danny asked, none of the confusion Rusty knew he was feeling showing in his face or voice.

"A few weeks ago I believe he got upset about a conversation he overheard." Rusty's eyes had been switching between LeMarc and Linus, who still had not shown any sign he knew they were there. Noticing this LeMarc gave him a small sympathetic smile and said "Don't worry about Linus, he's just letting it all sink in."

This just confused Danny and Rusty more, it had been four days if Linus was only letting it sink in now he'd be no help to them when the time came to actually pull the job.

Exchanging a confused look with Danny, Rusty leant forward in his chair and lowered his voice as he spoke to LeMarc in hopes that Linus couldn't hear him. "It's been four days," he said quietly, "how has it not sunken in yet?"

Rusty and Danny watched as the expression on LeMarc's face switched between, confusion, amazement and sympathy before leaning back with a look of awe on his face, his voice was quiet and amazed as he asked. "Haven't you heard yet?"

That seemed to get the kid's attention and his whole body went rigid. He gave a cold laugh and said "And here I was thinking you seemed to know everything."

Rusty knew Danny was as surprised by this as he was, the sentence just didn't seem to fit Linus, the kid hadn't even seem annoyed or angry at Benedict, and his voice had been cold, dead almost. Rusty looked at Danny who looked back at him, his face was passive, a poker face, but Rusty knew him better than anyone, he could see the confusion, and worry behind the façade. Not that Rusty was surprised by that, he was as confused as Danny by this point, and Rusty knew that of all the kid's they had tried to help out Linus was Danny's favourite, hell he was Rusty's favourite as well. Not that it was to hard for him to be, none of the other kids had been worth a thing, a few had been unable to go through with their first jobs which were far smaller than Vegas, and the others had made a mess of them, needless to say none of them had been invited back. Linus was different to them though, obviously he was better then all the others, and even if he was quiet he was more comfortable around other thieves then any of the other recruits had been, though that was almost certainly because he had grown up in a house full of them. Linus was also far less confident than the others, he didn't input ideas when they were all planning their heists, Rusty knew he had them, but insecurity, and something that seemed like respect held him back from putting them into words.

Rusty snapped back into attention as Danny asked "What don't we know?" his voice was calm, flat, and showed no confusion about what was happening.

LeMarc laughed slightly and whilst not cold like Linus's laugh had been there was no happiness or amusement in the sound "You both seem lost."

Finally Linus turned to face them, Rusty was taken back by his appearance at first, whilst his face looked as if he had aged 5 yrs in the past 3 hours, his eyes seemed younger, scared, and somehow even more innocent and lost than they had when they were talking to Matsui "Now you know how I felt during the 'lost in translation'." Ok, so maybe the kid hadn't been so lost, but still something was obvious going on.

Danny was as shocked by Linus's appearance (and the fact that he knew about the lost in translation) as Rusty was. "What's going on?" he tried again, hoping it wasn't as awful as these two were bringing it up to be.

Linus sighed and looked as though he was about to answer, but LeMarc cut him off. "Did you hear about the job Charlie was pulling in Venice?"

"Charlie Croker?" Rusty asked, his eyes shifted to Linus who had once again turned his back on them and was looking out over the pool.

LeMarc nodded, "Do you know him?"

Rusty shook his head "Only through the grapevine." He said wearily, wishing one of them would just get to the point.

"At the last minute he realised they would need an extra person, John remembered that Bobby and Annie were in Venice for a vacation, and he suggested they call Bobby." LeMarc paused in his story a look of dread on his face.

"Were they arrested?" Danny asked. Rusty thought that if they were it must have been bad, 15-20 years perhaps because these days it was getting far to easy to just spring friends from jail. He still thought it was unlikely though as Charlie Croker and John Bridger were part of a team almost as well thought of as their own, and Bobby in himself was a legend.

LeMarc shook his head slowly and sent a quick glance across at Linus, who once again seemed to have forgotten their existence. "Bobby agreed to do it of course," LeMarc laughed sourly "Anything to keep him on his toes. The job went off without a hitch and the group, plus Annie, were taking a mini van to Florence." LeMarc paused again and looked over Linus before sighing and looking back at them. "They were crossing a bridge when a van came on from the other side in front of them, another one stopped behind them. It turned out one of the guys, _Steve,_ had decided that a cut of the money wasn't enough for him, he wanted all of it." LeMarc stoped speaking and looked over at Linus, who was now sitting down on the side of the pool, his head on one of his knees, while the other leg was hanging in the pool, Rusty wondered mildly how he couldn't be cold.

Turning back to them LeMarc continued to speak "He had hired some goons, they came out of their vans, guns in hands, and threatened to kill anyone who showed any resistance, but you know Bobby, tried to talk Steve out of it." LeMarc paused, and Rusty could feel his face drain from what he thought he was about to hear. "Steve shot him," LeMarc continued slowly "straight through the eyes. They unloaded the gold, and sent the van with the others straight into the lake." LeMarc took a deep breath before continuing to speak, slightly faster this time, "they tried to get everyone out of the van, but Annie had already been in hysterics when it went under, she swallowed to much water… the guys couldn't revive her." LeMarc stopped speaking.

From by the pool Linus spoke up, his voice was small, and weak, but oddly stable. "John called Stella, to give her the brief details, when they got back to civilisation. He wanted to tell me in person, but Stella had been hysterical and called me straight away, so when I got here LeMarc called John and we got the whole story."

Linus and the others fell into silence as Danny and Rusty let what they had just heard crash over them.

* * *

What do you think? 

Should I continue?

R + R


	2. Explanations

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Darkdestiney2000: Thanks heaps for reviewing, but just to clear this up, Charlie isn't dead, I'm really sorry if I gave off that impression, the only people who died are Bobby and Annie Caldwell (Linus's parents).

Chaigirl: Thankyou for reviewing

* * *

Rusty sat there looking between LeMarc and Linus, he couldn't believe it, Bobby Caldwell, the man who had helped pull them up into the circuit, the man who had tought them the finer points of pick pocketing, was dead.

Rusty remembered when they had first met Bobby, himself and Danny had been conning a group of college frat boys out of their money using a poker game as a distraction.

_Rusty looked across at Danny who shook his head and smiled slightly, the game had been easy, the kids had been stupid, and they had cleaned them out in under 1½ hours. They were just heading for the door when Rusty felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around he was face to face with a man who looked a few years older than himself._

_"That was pretty good." The man said looking between Danny and Rusty, Rusty didn't know whether to say thankyou or turn and run for fear that he was a cop or something. Apparently seeing the look on Rusty's face the man laughed and shook his head, "I'm not a cop. Come on I'll buy you a drink." The man turned and headed towards the bar._

_After exchanging a look with Danny they followed him, curiosity getting the best of them. As they took a seat at the bar drinks where placed in front of them. The man turned and held out his hand, "I'm Bobby" _

_Danny took his hand first and shook it, "Danny," he answered "And Rusty," he added indicating his friend who was sitting next to him._

_"Hi," Rusty said taking Bobby's hand._

_Bobby turned back to his drink, "As I said," he started "That was good, but it was small," Glancing at them again, it was as if he was sizing them up, not physically, but mentally, like he was trying to see what they could do. "You two seem like smart enough kids, do you want to give the big time a go?"_

_Rusty looked at Danny already knowing the answer, he looked at Danny and knew he was right, he would have liked to get started that very night, but when he turned back to tell Bobby yes, he was gone. Rusty was shocked for a minute, looking around, there weren't many people in the bar and the doors weren't all that close to them. Rusty was impressed, and looking at Danny he could tell he was to. _

_Danny reached into his pocket to pay the man with the money they had won from the college kids, while he was pulling apart the bill to give the barman a card fell from the stack and hit the ground, Rusty bent down to pick it up, it looked like a normal business card. Along one side the name 'Bobby Caldwell' was printed and underneath it in messy scrawl was and address and time._

_Rusty showed the card to Danny, who studied it for a minute "Must be for tomorrow," he said thoughtfully, then turning to look at Rusty asked "Wanna go?" Rusty just smiled and they headed for the car._

The meeting had been about a job, it was simple enough, a jewellery store, it was just Bobby, Reuben, Rusty and Danny. Rusty remembers how nervous he had been before hand, all the anxiety that just seemed to build up as the job got closer, but it had been a small job, and they only needed a week to get ready for it. Looking over at Linus he remembered what the kid had been like in Vegas, scared out of his mind half the time, and then Rusty and the others picking on him, it had been fun though, and the kid had gotten by he was better off for it.

Rusty remembered how surprised he had been when Danny called to say the Linus had let it slip that he was Bobby's son. In all the time they had known Bobby (which was leading up to 20 years at that stage) he had never mentioned having a son. Mind you he had also hadn't mentioned having a wife anytime in the first 12 years, until they had all been arrested and Annie came and sprung them out of jail. Thinking back on it, Rusty's pretty sure he remembers them talking about someone called 'Lenny'. The kid would have been around fifteen then, Annie sprung them out and on the car ride back to the airport the two of them were talking in the front seats. Rusty didn't think he had ever seen Bobby act that childish before, like this woman just brought it out in him, anyway Bobby was complaining about his wife telling Lenny, and how he'd never hear the end of it, getting caught and needing your wife to come and bail you out. Oddly enough that was exactly how Linus acted every time someone talked about telling his dad things.

Rusty was broken out of his musings by Danny's voice "So, Steve, was he a part of the team?"

LeMarc nodded slowly, "Yes, for about 2 years now." He answered.

"What's he like?"

Shaking his head LeMarc answered, "I'm not sure, never met him." Then turning around he spoke to Linus "Ever met him kid?"

"Nah," Linus stood up and started making his way towards them, "Dad said he was ok, just not creative." As he sat down Rusty's phone rang.

Pulling it out he looked at the caller ID, "It's Eddie Stock," Rusty said as he answered the phone, "Hello… yeah I heard… yeah… yeah… thanks for calling." Rusty placed the phone n his pocket and looked up at the others "Guess we weren't on the important to call list."

LeMarc laughed slightly, "Considering they had to keep it low for a while I'd say you weren't too far down."

They all sat their for a minute or two, just contemplating, there really wasn't anything else to say, the Caldwells were dead, and their only son (that Rusty knew of anyway) was there, no one knew what to say.

Eventually Danny stood up and thanked LeMarc, Rusty followed suit, they paused for a second, unsure whether they should say something to Linus, but eventually settled for an "I'm sorry" and left.

* * *

They walked silently down the driveway. It wasn't as though they had never known someone who died before, but the guys had trusted Steve, they must have to work with him for two years. Rusty wasn't a paranoid person, he didn't think that one of their crew would pull a gun on them, mind you if they didn't pay Benedict back he would. It was kind of ironic, Benedict made a big deal about not including anyone else, yet the first person to get bullet in the head, was the father of one of the crew, granted that had nothing to do with Benedict, still happened though.

Rusty turned at the sound of footsteps behind him and was surprised to see Linus following them down the drive. "Where you just going to leave me here?" he asked, a small smile on his face. If Rusty hadn't seen him by the pool, or in Vegas, he honestly would have believed the kid was fine.

Danny laughed lightly, "Figured you'd just get back however you got here." He answered before turning around and leading them towards the small car.

"Well I'm not to sure how I got here," the kid answered catching up with them. "I was kind of wondering around, and then I was here, guess I blanked out a bit in the middle." Linus looked confused and thoughtful for a minute, as if trying to work out what had happened, before giving up and just shaking his head to clear it. "Anyway, you don't mind do you?"

Rusty shook his head, "Not if you sit in the back."

Linus just laughed.

The trip back to the city was quiet, Linus just sat looking out the window, apparently the small display of amusement on the driveway had taken everything out of him. Danny was driving, he kept glancing into the mirror, as if checking that the kid was still there.

After arriving at the hotel they all walked up to Rusty and Danny's suite in silence. As they neared the room Reuben appeared in front of them.

"Did you guys hear about Bobby?" His voice was as loud and outgoing as always but it was filled with a sense of surprise Rusty had never heard before. They both nodded "What happened?"

Danny opened his mouth to answer, but stopped when he saw Linus, who had moved to sit by the window separate from the rest of the group.

Rusty realised why Danny had been so quiet since leaving LeMarc's, he was afraid of upsetting the kid, Rusty found this kind of silly as judging by the completely blank look on Linus's face upsetting him more would be a really hard thing to do.

Reuben followed Danny's gaze over to the kid and he drew in a sharp breath "Damn," he said this time in a low voice, "I'd forgotten he was here, hows he taking it?" he asked turning back to Danny.

Danny just shrugged "Alright I guess, hasn't said much."

"Are you sending him home?"

"That's really his choice."

Reuben nodded looking over at Linus again he then turned back to Danny and said in a voice that clearly said no questions "Send him home."

Before Danny could say anything Basher and Frank came in from the other room. "What the hell happened?" Basher asked.

Livingston, Yen and the Malloys, who had been trying to watch TV from the couch looked up at the question, "Did something go wrong?" Turk asked. His eyes darted between Rusty and Danny.

"No, the meeting went fine," Rusty answered smoothly hoping everyone would just calm down quickly.

"No not the meeting," Basher said exasperatedly, "How'd Bobby die?"

Linus twitched, Livingston looked shocked, Yen and the twins looked confused, and Danny sighed wishing Basher hadn't said that. Rusty realised then that Basher didn't know Linus was Bobby's son, the kid didn't ever talk about it, which was a smart if he wanted to make it on his own, actually as far as Rusty knew himself, Danny, and Reuben where the only ones from their team who knew, though he wouldn't be surprised if Saul had caught on at some time.

"Okay everyone be quiet," Danny said, then turning towards Yen, Turk, and Virgil continued "Bobby was a pickpocket, he was a friend of ours."

Rusty noticed Danny's eyes quickly dart to Linus as the kid silently slipt into the kitchen, slightly more relaxed Danny continued, quickly explaining what had happened in Venice.

Nobody moved for a minute, eventually Reuben broke the trance by getting himself a glass of scotch, which he quickly drown before filling the glass again.

"Bloody hell" Basher moaned in a quiet voice, rubbing his eyes. The others nodded slightly in agreement.

"But, on a lighter note," Danny started again "we did get a job,"

All eyes turned towards them, including Linus who had reappeared and was leaning against the door that lead to the kitchen.

"How much?" asked Virgil, happy to stop talking about the deaths of a thief and a con artist he had never met.

"2.5 mil" Danny admitted slowly.

"Each?"

"No." Rusty was pretty sure that everyone except, Danny, Linus (who really didn't seem to care) and himself groaned when they heard that. "But," Danny continued "Once we get this one, he'll give us a bigger job."

"How much bigger?" Turk asked,

"Don't know." Nobody looked happy, or pleased by the answer "guys it's all we've got," Had anyone else said it, it would sound like they were pleading, but Danny said it as a fact. The other just grumbled and nodded their heads.

"How long will it take?" Linus asked. Rusty looked at him slightly surprised, it was the first time he had seemed even vaguely interested in the conversation.

Danny paused, he and Rusty hadn't looked over the blueprints or planned anything yet, and he knew the kid would have to get back to Chicago for the funeral. "I don't know, hopefully only a few days." Linus nodded slowly.

Reuben spoke up then, apparently not realising that Linus really didn't want to talk about his parent in front of everyone "Go home kid."

Linus looked at Reuben, his face was completely blank, but there was a small tinge in his eye that showed that he was angry about the comment. It confused Rusty a bit seeing as he had never minded being told what to do by Reuben before, of course that had always been about a job, this is completely different. "No," Linus said stubbornly "If it's quick I'll still be in time."

"It's not about being on time," Reuben said in a tone of voice that was very blunt, showing he had no interest in being argued with "You're hardly on earth now, and you'll be no help if you can't even think straight."

"I can think fine." Linus argued, he was loosing his composure an beginning to look angry, which Rusty supposed was probably better than being dead to the world. Frank, Yen, Livingston, Basher, Turk, and Virgil all looked very confused at the transaction.

"Of course you can't think fine," Reuben began, he was about to continue when Basher broke in.

"You're a pickpocket," he said turning towards Linus, everyone in the turned there eyes to Basher, confused by this outburst.

"If you're only noticing that now then I'm doing something wrong," Linus told him in a completely serious voice.

"No." Basher tried to explain himself, "I mean, did you know Bobby? Did he train you?"

"Yes and yes." Linus answered, the others looked less confused now, realising what Reuben and Linus had been talking about.

"Well if we don't need you, you should go," Frank said, watching Linus closely.

Rusty was slightly surprised by that, he realised that if it had been anyone else in the room people would have expected them to stay, after all as far as these guys knew Linus knew Bobby no better than Rusty or Danny. Except that Linus was the youngest, and the others would let him get away with more, it's weird how it works, Frank probably didn't even realise he was doing it, but as Basher, Yen Livingston an the Malloys nodded in agreement Rusty knew it was true.

Linus looked slightly startled that everyone seemed to want to get rid of him, shrugging he said "Fine, if your all going to gang up on me I'll go," then heading towards the door he muttered "You know considering how upset everyone was about losing someone when Saul left this is very insulting." As he left Reuben called after him

"Call us with funeral details."

Waving slightly in understanding Linus shut the door behind him.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Turk asked Reuben "Is there a particular reason you wanted to get rid of him?"

Reuben just shrugged and got himself another drink, "No, but considering his parents just died I think we can all agree he won't be much help."

"Wow, wait a second" Frank cut in "So, Bobby and Annie, who are dead, are Linus's parents?" He was clearly surprised, as were Basher, Livingston, Yen, Turk and Virgil.

"Yes" Danny answered.

Basher shook his head lightly as if not believing it, "You couldn't have told me that before I came into the room and started yelling about it?"

"Well you didn't exactly give us a chance." Rusty answered defending himself. Everyone was quiet for a moment. "Anyway," Rusty continued, "We have to work on this job."

* * *

What do you think?

I wasn't to sure when the others should find out Linus was Bobby's kid, so I hope this works.

R+R


	3. Coming Home: Part 1

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Pmochizuki: Thank you for correcting my names, actually I started of calling him Gunther but somehow it changed to Miguel sometime in the middle, anyway I've reposted the first chapter with a fixed name.

Darkdestiny2000: Thanks heaps for reviewing

* * *

Stella was beginning to feel anxious, Linus had called her before he got on the flight and given her the flight details, so here she was 20 minutes after the flight had landed and was still waiting for him to get through customs.

Eventually he walked through the gates, for the first time ever the sight of her childhood friend made Stella feel nervous, what do you say to someone who's parents had just died? Granted Stella's mother had died when she was younger, but that was of cancer, and Stella could hardly remember her, so it was different. Plus after her mothers death Annie had always been there for her, Annie all but retired after she had Linus, so while Stella's dad and Bobby were 'working' out of town Stella would go and stay with Linus and Annie.

Working up her courage Stella walked over and gave Linus hug, even though it had been under a week since she had last seen him, he looked 10 years older.

"Hey 'Nus" She said in a soft voice as they broke apart

"Don't call me that." It was an automatic reply, having grow up together they had gone through heaps of nicknames for each other, majority of which were hated.

"How was your flight?"

"Alright, they ran out of peanuts." Stella forced a small laugh, they both knew it was meaningless, but at this point a pointless conversation was better than the heavy stuff.

In silence they walked to Stella's car. It was odd having nothing to say, Stella remembered when they were in school, somehow they always ended up in the same classes and the teachers were lucky if they had 2 minutes of silence. Stella laughed slightly at the memory.

"What's so funny?" Linus asked turning to face her.

"Remember that time in Science," she began "Junior year when we were having that class debate, Mrs Smith decided that we wouldn't work well together so she put us on opposite teams. Then we were presenting and you started taking it all very personally."

"_I_ started taking it all very personally?" Linus cut in laughing "I'm not the one who started yelling about how it was the opposition's fault that rainforests were being killed."

"Well your ideology stated that to work you would have to dig up the rainforests to find the fossil fuels." Stella argued.

"So? I didn't pick it," Linus argued back "And I'm not the one who turned a simple debate into a round the class yelling match."

Stella just burst out laughing at that "Mrs Smith was trying to quieten us for like 10 minutes."

"Till she gave up and just gave us each detentions, which I still think was unfair."

"It _was_ unfair." Stella agreed, "Mind you she didn't separate us again after that."

Nodding Linus let out a small laugh and turned his gaze back to the window.

They were silent again until Stella turned onto the M2, "Where are we going?" Linus asked panicking slightly as he turned to face her.

"Didn't you get my message?"

Linus shook his head

"Oh," Stella faltered slightly and took a deep breath, "We're meeting Dad and the guys at your parents home," letting her eyes rest on Linus for a second she finished "they're bringing the bodies back."

Stella watched Linus through the corner of her eye as he took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes tiredly shaking his head.

"Will you be alright?"

"Yeah," He sighed and leant back in his seat before turning to face her, "36 hours ago my only worry was someone calling my dad to tell him what was going on with Benedict."

Stella nodded slowly, "So, what was going on with Benedict wasn't worrying you?"

Linus laughed "Not as much," he told her before shaking his head "It's a good team they'll get the money."

"With no help from you," Stella joked.

He turned to face her "Well it's their own fault," he argued "I offered to stay a few extra days, but they all ganged up on me and told me to come back here."

"Well that's good," Stella said nodding "Otherwise I'd still be worried sick about how you were taking it."

They drove the rest of the way to Linus's parent's house in silence.

* * *

Sorry this chapter is so short but I'm aiming on making the next one longer

R+R


	4. Coming Home: Part 2

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

DarkDestiney: Thanks for reviewing, you're the only one. And yes I know I don't show it much in this chapter but Linus will be friends with the other guys.

Come on everyone else REVIEW!

* * *

Linus unlocked the door and walked inside, his steps were light like all good pickpockets were, but they seemed to echo loudly in the large front hall. Linus looked around himself, completely ignoring Stella's presence as she followed him inside, it had been under 2 weeks since he had last been here and yet it somehow looked completely different.

Linus couldn't count the number of times he had stood on this very spot yelling that he was back from school, or with his dad as his mum lectured them on reasons that you shouldn't teach a child to be a pickpocket. Linus smiled at the memory, but that was when realisation finally dawned on him, that was never going to happen again. He was never going to play pool with his dad while talking about how easy it was to con his teachers into marks, never listen to his dad telling him about the latest job under the promise that Linus would never tell his mum dad told him. Linus laughed slightly thinking about that, you could never keep anything from his mum, she controlled the house and the second something happened she knew about it.

Linus felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Stella standing beside him giving him a small smile, he tried to smile back in what he hoped was a reassuring way before turning and walking down the corridor towards his dad's office.

"What time are they getting here?" Linus asked as he moved behind his dad's desk.

"I'd say about 20 minutes," Stella watched as he started to shuffle through the draws, "What are you looking for?"

Linus didn't look up as he answered "I'm trying to find out which attorney has my parents will." Pausing in his search he got up and walked around past Stella to pull few books off the shelf revealing a small in wall safe. Turning around he asked "Can you open this?"

Stella nodded taking a few steps forward "Does your dad have any tools?" Linus reached up a pulled a black bag out of a cupboard which he passed to her before returning to continue his search of the desk.

They worked in silence for a few minutes, Stella was beginning to feel annoyed, it wasn't a hard safe to pick or anything but Bobby's combination was really long, she assumed he was hoping who ever had to pick it would get bored and therefore never finish. Sighing she turned to Linus. "This is driving me crazy," she said.

He looked up at her, "What'd he do?"

"Oh, it's just a really long combination."

Linus nodded "Do you want me to take over for a while?" At her raised eyebrow he laughed "Hey John taught me the same time as you, even if I don't have as much practise." Stella was about to answer him when she was cut off by the door bell. "I better get that," Linus said and left the room.

Stella found the next number and was relieved when the safe opened. Packing up Bobby's tools she headed out to see her father, who she assumed was at the door.

* * *

Charlie took a deep breath before pushing the doorbell. Trying the door he realised it was unlocked and let everyone in, as Lyell was shutting the door after himself Linus appeared from around the corner.

John stepped forward and gave him a quick hug. Taking a small step back he looked at Linus, he looked worn out, John figured that Stella probably hadn't noticed but the seemed tired, like he hadn't slept in days, even though it hadn't been even 36 hours since Steve had turned on them. "You ok?" he asked in a soft voice

"I'm fine," John wasn't surprised by the answer, he figured Linus was lying but ignored it.

"I'm sorry," Linus turned towards to voice, Charlie was standing next to John he didn't seem nervous, but definitely wanted to know what Linus was thinking.

Shaking his head Linus took gave Charlie a half hearted high five and slap on the back "Not your fault."

Turning towards the others Linus greeted them "hey Rob, Left-ear" then turning towards Lyell he paused for a second "Lyell right?"

"Oh, sorry" Charlie said cutting in, "Linus this is Lyell, Lyell Linus."

"I like to call him Lenny, Len for short." Stella called out as she made her way into the room.

John smiled and gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek. Turning to the others he introduced her, "Guys this is my daughter Stella, Stella Handsome Rob, Left-Ear, Lyell."

After greeting had been exchanged Stella and Charlie went to show the guys around, Linus turned to John "Where are they?" he asked quietly

"In the van," John admitted quietly.

"I can't bring them to a funeral home, can I?" Linus asked, but he already knew the answer.

"No, not really, I'm sorry,"

"It doesn't matter," Linus said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than John, "We'll have a small funeral at the graveyard, and place them in the mausoleum that grandpa bought." Linus stopped speaking as his voice was beginning to break. They both stood silently for a minute until Linus spoke up again. "Alright, I'll talk to the priest, and the attorney, you guys try a prepare this place for a funeral, and shut all the curtains." Linus paused for a moment thinking, "Also can you see if you can find somewhere to get a coffin without a lot of questions, and we need someone to clean them up."

John looked at Linus trying to decide if he should try and talk to him about it, eventually he just agreed to do as the kid had asked, together they walked towards Bobby's office.

* * *

Rusty turned the handle on the vault door, it had taken a while, and a very hard workout but they had managed to get in, walking forward he noticed that the share wasn't there, instead there was a small fox figurine.

* * *

REVIEW!

What do you think?

I don't really like the way I wrote this chapter, but I wanted to show that Linus was upset without making him seem like a complete baby.

Sorry that there wasn't much about the crew in this chapter. I will have more of both crews in the next chapter.


	5. Found Him

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

I'd like to thank darkdestiney for telling me that that I was spelling Lyle wrong, that's actually the second name I've spelt wrong this story, so if I do it again please tell me about it.

Cascade-of-black-ink: Thanks for reviewing, and I agree the movie did make Linus look like a wimp, I hated that when I was watching it, possibly why I decided to change it.

* * *

"So _he_ says he called it NAPSTER because of his nickname, but he didn't, he called it that 'cause I was _napping_ when he stole it." Lyle was really working himself up about this. And continued to complain as Linus tuned him out and looked over at Handsome Rob for help, Rob just smiled at him and shrugged, giving him a quick glare Linus turned his attention back to Lyle. "His face was all over WIRED magazine, but it should have been _me_."

Linus was about to make up an excuse about needing to find a caterer, but was cut off as John came in. He looked angry, which surprised Linus as he had never seen him like that, he hadn't even gotten angry that Halloween when Linus and Stella had squirted one of him and Bobby's important friends (who turned out to be LeMarc) with a hose.

"Dad?" Stella asked quietly, apparently noticing the change in her father as well.

"He's in LA." John seemed to have calmed down now and was pacing the room, everyone had stopped talking and just watched him, waiting for an explanation.

"Who's in LA?" Left-Ear spoke up.

"Steve" the word was full at hatred, and it was hard to imagine that 2 days ago they had been friends. Nobody moved for a minute, Linus couldn't work out how he felt about the fact that he was in the same country as the man who killed his parents, he was angry that the man had taken his parents from him, but still upset that he hadn't died in a freak accident that involved a plane and marmalade, and there was a part of him that wanted no more than to go to LA and shoot the guy, that in turn disturbed him a little as it seemed far to like Benedict.

Eventually Rob broke the silence, "Are we going after him? Get the money back?" He spoke quietly but after he realised what he had said he paused, and looked towards Linus trying to explain himself. "I don't mean that it's about the money, just, it would really piss him off." Rob looked like he was going to continue but Linus waved him off.

"I know what you meant." Linus said softly, he rubbed his eyes tiredly, "You guys go after him if you want, but I don't want the money." With that he got up and left the room. Stella looked like she wanted to follow him but Charlie's hand on her shoulder made her stop and lean back in the chair she was sitting in.

"I shouldn't have said that," Rob said wishing he could take it back.

"Not your fault," Stella assured him, "but really if you guys want to go after him you should wait until after the funeral." The others nodded silently agreeing with her.

"Len's right though," Charlie spoke up "I don't want the money now either." He paused "mind you I wouldn't mind seeing the look on Steve's face when he realises it's gone."

Everyone sat in silence thinking about the man they once would have called a friend. Stella broke the silence this time "How much is there?"

"How much what?" John asked his daughter, confused by the question.

"Gold." She answered

"100 mil," John told her confused about why it was so important, _hadn't they just agreed they didn't want the gold?_ "Why?"

"Use it to pay back Benedict." Stella looked around at all the guys confused faces before it occurred to her that they didn't know who Benedict, "Long story short he'll kill Linus and 10 other guys if they don't find 95 million."

"Oh, right" Left-Ear said snapping back into it, "I heard about that."

"I'll talk to Lenny about it," John said looking calmer than he had since he found out about Steve, "Stella can you fin rooms for these four?"

"Sure dad," She said nodding "Ask Len what he wants for dinner while you're at it."

John gave a small laugh moving towards the door, "Order whatever you want." He said as he left the room.

"So do we all get out own rooms?" Rob asked Stella trying to lighten the mood.

Stella lifted an eyebrow at him, "Sure," she nodded sharply "I'll shove you in the servants quarters." With that she got up to leave.

"Servants quarters?" Lyle asked looking up to her, "How much help did they need?"

Stella laughed "It's an old house," she assured Lyle. "Come on I'll show you to your rooms." She gave them a little mock bow then turned and walked down the hallway.

Charlie smiled, it was good to hear her mucking around again, she had been very serious all day, granted for good reason, he knew that Stella had lived with the Caldwells while her father was in jail, but this made Charlie feel more confident that she was dealing with it ok. Charlie followed Stella down the hallway.

* * *

John found Linus sitting on the outdoor table staring at the pool. Moving forward slowly he sat next him and looked towards the water, it was calm and John found it oddly calming just watching the reflexion of the sky and surrounding trees move along the water. They sat in silence for a few minutes until John felt Linus's eyes on him.

"Are you going?" John didn't need to ask what Linus was talking about, and suddenly it occurred to him that this was what Linus had been thinking about, whether or not he would be hearing more about the guy who killed his parents. John had know Lenny for the kid's whole life. John and Bobby had been close friends before the kids were born, and as Linus was only 3 weeks younger than Stella, they had gone to school together. Linus was a lot like Bobby and one of the traits he had picked up from his father was that he didn't get angry often. John figured that Linus must have been somewhat confused about what to do with the intensive form of hatred he must have been feeling towards Steve.

"Stella had an idea," John turned towards Linus. "Use the money to pay back Benedict." Linus looked at John slightly surprised for a moment before nodding thoughtfully.

"Are you sure your guys don't want it?" he asked after a moment, John just nodded, "I'll call Rusty, see if they've had any luck."

"Good," they fell back into silence watching the reflexions move across the water.

* * *

Rusty tuned out Turk and Virgil's argument and answered his phone, "Hello."

"Hi," answered the caller, Rusty was surprised to hear Linus's voice, now Rusty wasn't an easy person to surprise but Linus's voice had managed to do it twice in 3 days.

"How's it going?" Linus asked, but he didn't really seem to care about the answer, Rusty figured he was just curious.

"Not so good," Rusty paused wondering if the kid would ask him to go on, he didn't so Rusty continued anyway, "The job was pointless, someone else got there first."

"Toulour?" Linus asked, before Rusty could answer he continued "Doesn't matter, listen."

"Listening," Rusty was just curious about the reason for the call by this point, they hadn't heard from Linus since they '_ganged up on him'_ and the kid had certainly never given Rusty an order before, but then again it wasn't really an order, probably more of a request. Rusty remember how much energy it seemed to take out of Linus to talk to him when they were leaving LeMarc's, so maybe he just wanted to get the call over a done with.

"Remember Steve?"

_Stupid question _Rusty thought, of course he remembered Steve, the guy he had never met. "Yeah, I remember Steve."

"Good," Linus paused for a moment and Rusty considered handing the phone to Danny, who was talking to Reuben about something on the balcony, he'd probably know what to say better than Rusty. However Linus cut off this line of thought by continuing "He's in LA, and has about 100 million dollars worth of gold with him."

Rusty was shocked for a second, _that must have been the job_ he realised, "and you want to get it back?" he asked slowly.

"No," came an urgent reply from the other end of the line, it was the only emotion Rusty had heard in his voice so far, "I don't want to have anything to do with it, but we do need 95 mil, and John and his guys don't want it." Rusty wasn't someone who was bad with words, but he honestly didn't know what to say after that, luckily he didn't need to because Linus once again cut him off before he had started "I've gotta go, but just so you know funeral's the day after tomorrow, and if you want the gold you'll have to let John and the others in on it, bye."

"Bye," Rusty hung up the phone, and just looked at it for a second before heading out to the balcony.

* * *

Hey guys REVIEW!

Now I do realise that in 'The Italian Job' they stole 35 mil worth of gold, and I know that 100 mil is a LOT of gold, but if you could just ignore all the laws of physics, and pretend that in mass it's only as much as the 35 mil that would be great.

By the way I've written a little prequel to this story which I'll post in the next few days.

P.S- if anyone was confused by the whole _died in a freak accident that involved a plane and marmalade _thing, when I was trying to work out how to kill off Bobby, my friend neofilly randomly suggested it and I just had to include it in the story somehow.


	6. Revisiting Old Memories

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Darkdestiney: thanks for the review

Firstly I'd like to say in advance that I'm really sorry for the first bit, I think I've written it to be extremely boring but I worked on it for ages and couldn't get it any better.

* * *

"Give it to me!"

"It's mine!"

"No it's not took it of my arm rest!"

Reuben sighed and turned up the volume trying to focus on the movie and not the twins arguing across the aisle from him. He looked down at his watch, there were only about 3 hours left before they landed in Chicago. _This_ Reuben though warily _is why we travel separately and **then** meet up._ Livingston was sitting next to him snoring quietly, Danny, Rusty and Basher were sitting in the row in front of him.

Reuben wondered how Danny and Rusty were taking the Caldwell's deaths, unlike most the others in their team they had known them (especially Bobby) quite well, granted not as well as himself, and certainly not as well as Linus, but they had known them. They like himself were going to the funeral to say goodbye to old friends, not to be there for a newer one. It's not that Reuben didn't care about the kid, but Bobby had been a good friend to him, they had met just outside college, and started on small cons, poker games and such, like most beginners got stuck with. Eventually they got bored, or cocky, Reuben wasn't to sure which it was. Either way, they decided to rob jewellery store. It wasn't a big jewellery store by any means, but when you had two beginners together it was like the blind leading the blind. However the job had gone off without a hitch (two weeks late mind you). A guy called Jake Larkin had liked the heist and taken them on for a while, taught them simple tricks of the trade, but Jake wasn't big time so after 18 months they were on their own again. 2 years and many jobs later they met LeMarc, he helped them out, introduced them around, taught them the more complicated tricks of the trade. One of the guys they met was Tom Bishop, a pickpocket, the best. He was training John Bridger at the time. At first Reuben hadn't understood how they made it work, at pickpocket training a 'locks and bolts technician' but he later found out that Tom didn't train pickpockets. He knew little knickknacks, tricks of the trade and what have you, but they would die with him. Even Bobby hadn't been able to change that policy.

That would probably have been when they started drifting apart, not that they weren't still good friends, but they could do it on their own. So they split up, Reuben did jobs mainly by himself, sometimes he'd put a group together and pull bigger ones, it was about 4 years before they worked together again, Reuben, Bobby, John (who Bobby had been working with a lot for the last few years), and a group of beginners, Danny and Rusty. It was a good job, and the guys weren't really beginners by that stage, they had gone through the _poker stage, _and done a few simple cons with Bobby, but they still had a while to go. It was a good job, a few million, which was worth a lot more back then than it is now.

Thinking back Reuben realised that had also been when he first found out that Bobby was engaged to Annie. Reuben had to admit he had been surprised that Bobby would get married so soon, in the time Reuben and Bobby had spent working together they had talked about everything, and Bobby had always seemed like the type who would be a bachelor for ever. Reuben realised that he now had to admit to himself that he had been wrong on that front. As of around 3 days ago Bobby had died married, and had been approaching his 30th anniversary.

Reuben remembered the wedding, neither of them had any siblings, Bobby had been raised in a foster house- which he hated- and for some reason Annie's father had been unable to attend. So it was a small wedding, and even still majority of the guests were thieves. It was fun though, and Reuben had been looking forward to their anniversary party. Which, last month, Bobby had told him was going to be huge.

Reuben was broken from his musings as the movie system started again, pushing the depressing thoughts to the back of his head Reuben concentrated on the feature.

* * *

Linus grabbed the keys to his father's jag off the hook and was half way out the front door when a voice stopped him.

"And here I was thinking that the sneaking out would have ended when you moved." Linus turned almost guiltily to see Stella walking down the stairs into the foyer,

"Well I didn't want to wake anyone up." He answered airily.

Stella walked down the remaining steps and joined Linus at the door, "where're we going?" she asked following him outside. Linus didn't answer for a moment and Stella could tell that he hadn't really planned on telling anyone about his 2 am excursion. "You know you can't get rid of me Lenny." She stated, laying down a law known to both of them, which until today hadn't been spoken, "so you may as well tell me where we're going."

Linus didn't answer her. They walked to the car in silence, and it was only after they were out the driveway that Stella realised he wasn't going to answer her. Sighing she turned to face him and was somewhat taken back by the look on his face.

Since she had picked him up from the airport he'd had what may as well have been a mask on, this cool indifference which Stella figured must have been the shock of everything that was happening. Stella had made sure she was near him so that when the mask fell (and she knew it would) someone would be there. Stella mentally kicked herself for thinking that. Yes. She had known Linus his whole life, and because of that she should have known he wouldn't crumble. People who had only known him a few years would assume he was, naïve, quiet, and probably fragile. Not that she could blame them, he acted like that. She knew him though, he'd get through this because that's what he was like, because that's what his father and grand-father had always told him to do.

Stella saw the look of complete determination that was on his face now and knew where they were going, and she almost wished she hadn't gotten into the car. She hadn't been there since Clair's funeral, and as far as she was concerned coming tomorrow in the afternoon would be upsetting enough. But if Linus thought coming at 2 am would help then she'd go.

After reaching their destination Linus turned off the car and turned to Stella, "you don't have to come in." He told her, clarifying what she already knew. Linus got out of the car and started walking up the path, it had been years since he had last been here (never really worked up the courage to visit) but he still felt confident he could find his way without a problem.

Linus wasn't at all surprised to hear footsteps behind him as Stella caught up. Together they walked in silence taking in their surroundings and looking for anything that had changed in the past 10 years.

They both stopped walking as they came to a heavy door.


	7. Clair Cowan

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Darkdestiney:- Thanks for reviewing, glad you liked it

Jocelyn Towers:- Thanks for reviewing, yeah I'd have to agree that it's getting a little slow, but I'm going to start writing about the heist next chapter. Also I'm not that big (or good) at love scenes, but the story is Stella/Charlie, I imagine Linus and Stella to have a more brother/sisterly relationship.

* * *

Linus entered the mausoleum, the light from the moon didn't carry through to the inside and he wondered how he had forgotten to grab the torch his dad always kept in the car. Walking further in he put his hands in front of himself to make sure he didn't walk into anything. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light he looked around himself. The crypt was very old and held generations of family from his mother's side. He could almost make out some of the names that lined the back wall. Walking along he bent down, the last name was his grandmothers, she wasn't born into the family, but that didn't really matter. Linus looked to his right. There was enough space for about 10 more people. Happy that there would be enough room Linus stood up and left, closing the door after himself. He was about to head back to the car when Stella's voice interrupted him.

"Clair?"

Crap. He hadn't even thought of Clair, he paused wanting to tell Stella the truth, but at the same time knowing he couldn't. Clair would kill him. Nodding he turned and followed Stella further into the cemetery. Linus winced as he accidentally stepped on a small pile of dry leaves, making them crumble under his shoe. Whilst Stella didn't turn Linus found the sound so loud he was almost surprised he couldn't see lights turning on in the small houses that surrounded the cemetery. Grandpa had always thought him to walk quietly, never to make more noise than absolutely necessary, '_the smallest wrong move could_ _draw attention.' _Majority of people would probably just say 'well duh!' but most people wouldn't know what a **wrong move **could include. Fixing your hat at the wrong time, biting your lip, and as far as being a pickpocket went making any noise when walking was definitely a wrong move.

Stella stopped walking and bent down in front of a white marble grave. In the dim light Linus could almost make out the face of a 15 year old girl. Walking further along Linus read the two graves next to Clair's, her parents. Her father, Greg, had worked with his dad and John, well that might be bending the truth a little. Linus didn't think Greg had ever done a job with another person in his life. But he was still friends with John and Bobby, which is how Stella and Linus met Clair. They were 7 at the time. Greg, Sue and Clair moved to Chicago and Linus, Stella and Clair were all in the same class at school. They had all been close, but Linus always thought of Clair differently to Stella. Whilst Stella was like his sister, Clair had more in common with him. She was thief, born into it, like he was, even if she never acted on it. Stella could crack a safe like no man's business, there was no doubt about that, but she never had it. Not that Linus was too sure what 'it' was, he supposed 'it' was like the 'X factor'.

Continuing to walk along the line of graves Linus stopped in front of the 3rd. Susanne White-Cowan, Linus doubted she really knew what she was getting herself into when she agreed to marry Greg. Sure she knew he was a thief, but does anyone who wasn't raised in this world really understand? Sure Sue knew Greg stole things, she knew he was good at it, and she knew that whilst it hadn't happened at the time there was a good chance he would be set to jail sometime for a stupid mistake. But did she know that she would be the one to get a bullet through her heart?

Linus didn't think so.

It wasn't like the Cowan's where the first family to be attacked, they were the last, that Linus knew of anyway. But they had been a big one. Not because the assassin shot a 15 year old girl, but because no one really knew why it happened.

Turning back to face Stella, who had now risen to her feet but was still looking at the photo of Clair as though she believed it would come to life and Clair would talk to her one more time, Linus remembered how angry she had been with him for agreeing to go to Vegas. He had spoken to her before he left, and she had been absolutely furious with him. Not that she was mad, just scared, same as she was with her dad and Charlie. He guessed she believed he would understand. _Don't get involved, you'll get hurt_. And as someone had threatened to kill him for his first job he'd have to agree that she was right. Linus didn't regret Vegas though. Never had, not even when he spotted Benedict watching him smoking a cigar on the edge of the street, Linus had to admit that as much as he had learnt about 'the game' when the Cowans died he really hadn't seen that coming. However compared to some of the others his shock was about nothing, Linus thought the Malloy's had taken it the worst. They were in it for fun and money, not that he wasn't, but they had spent their 'careers' working with guys like Danny and Rusty, guys who could put on the act of being so confident they had everyone, including themselves, convinced that nothing could go wrong. _They_ were wrong.

Finally Stella's eyes rise to meet his, and then silently she turns and starts walking back down the path towards the car.

As they hit the highway Stella saw an all night fast food shop and realises just how hungry she is, "do you want to stop for a bite?" she asked.

Linus doesn't show any sign of hearing her for a second before responding "I'm not really hungry, but sure if you want."

Stella watches him for a moment as he turns the jag into the car park. His face is as expressionless as his voice was, which scared her a little. Most people probably wouldn't find that very strange, but she knew Lenny, he was the kind of person you could read like a book. However right now she had no idea what he was thinking. She knew what her dad, Charlie and the others thought, they thought he was taking the death surprisingly well. Her dad had assumed that after the Cowan's Linus had more or less prepared himself in case something like that happened to his parents. Stella knew better. Linus was taking it awfully, but it hadn't hit him yet. He knew they were gone, but he didn't really understand. And he was waiting to let himself understand, Stella figured that when the funeral was over and the thing with Benedict died down he would come to terms with it, and begin to accept what had happened. However until that time she was going to live up to something Annie had jokingly made her promise when she was 9, she was going to look after him, and no matter how annoyed with her he got, he would just have to deal with it.

With this challenge in mind Stella told him in her most knowing tone, "Yes you are."

Linus should have been surprised, he should have given her an extremely confused look (because Linus couldn't handle the partly confused look). But instead he kept his eyes on the road, and simply said "excuse me?"

"You're hungry." Stella answered

"Why do you think I'm hungry?" he asked as he parked the car and finally turned to face her.

"Because you haven't eaten in days, and it is therefore physically impossible for you to not be hungry." She informed him, a look in her eyes as if daring him to challenge her.

Knowing she was telling the truth Linus shock his head and got out of the car. "I've been busy," he snuck a look at her to see if she was going to back down, "planning a funeral is surprisingly hard work."

Stella just glared at him in response, "you could have eaten any time last night."

"I was sleeping"

"No you weren't, you were watching TV." Linus gave her a look, wondering how she could have known that, so she continued. "Rob said he joined you around 4."

Linus didn't say anything, knowing there really wasn't anyway to argue with Stella or she would go into a rant about every little thing he had done wrong in his life, and unfortunately she knew a lot of them. Going inside he ordered Stella a burger and chips, and sat down across from her. As Stella glared at him, "I'll eat some of your chips." He assured her, even though they both knew he had no intention of doing that.

Stella ate silently as Linus watched the street, the number of cars was slowly increasing as it got closer to dawn, and he could see the sky turning orange. He watched as the huge hands of a clock in the window of the pawn shop across the street slowly made their way around the face.

* * *

John smiled up at Rosa as she placed breakfast and coffee in front of him on the table. He knew that if the guys weren't up soon he'd have to wake them, they'd told Lenny that they would pick Ocean and his guys up from the airport and the plane arrived in an hour.

As he ate he wondered why Stella wasn't up yet, she had never been one to sleep in. When he came into the kitchen that morning he had been surprised to find Rosa was the only other occupant, she had quickly greeted him and shown him to the dinning room explaining that Bobby had let all the help off for the week and she had only found out what happened when she got in this morning. After apologising for his loss Rosa had insisted on making breakfast, and wouldn't be stopped no matter how often John told her himself, Stella the guys would be fine with toast or cereal.

As he finished his meal it occurred to John that he hadn't seen Linus since waking up. All the times that Bobby and himself had been working late and he slept in a guest bedroom Linus was always the first one he saw in the morning. The kid never seemed to need his sleep, and given the recent event John had figured he would be sleeping even less. Getting up John walked down the hall towards the TV room, he assumed that Linus would be in there as it was where he spent the night before, according to Rob. Opening the large door he was slightly disheartened, and a little worried to find it empty.

John figured there was a good chance Stella had seen him, they had always been lose and as she had lived here she knew the house better than he did. John walked towards the East-Wing, where he knew Stella and Linus's rooms where, slowly to admire the many paintings that graced the walls as he went.

John knocked on Stella's door, hearing no reply he opened the door slowly and was surprised to see that whilst the bed looked messy and had clearly been slept in Stella wasn't there. Wondering where she could be John walked through the living room area, big enough to be used as a common room in a boarding school, to where Linus's bedroom was. John didn't bother knocking this time, knowing well what he would find on the other side. Opening the door he was not at all surprised to find the room empty with a made bed that had clearly not been slept in.

Taking a glance at his watch John realised he had to wake up the guys. Deciding he would worry about where the kids got off to later, John turned and went to wake up Charlie.

* * *

Turk stared dully out the window of the back seat as Rob drove. After arriving in Chicago they had met the other guys, who Turk assumed they would be doing the LA job with, and split up into cars. Turk was sitting in the back seat whilst Rob drove, Livingston was across from him and Frank was riding in the front. Somehow the car ride seemed even more boring than the 12 hours on a plane. Probably because he was use to driving, sitting in the back seat staring pointlessly out at the street whilst Frank and Rob talked about god knows what in the front was not his thing.

Turk lent back in his seat as they turned off the highway, he dully noted as the surroundings turned from the 'big city' type streets to a rural area. The houses where gradually getting bigger and Turk realised Linus must have grown up somewhere around here, they were after all going to his parents house.

The car started ascending a small hill and Turk noticed that there were no houses anymore just a very green lawn surrounding the flat, clean road. Turk sat up with more interest as they drove through some large open gates, looking forwards up the hill he could see a large house at the top of it. House seemed to be a bit of a stretch, this place was huge, a mansion, maybe even a castle.

As the group walked into the foyer it was obvious that Turk was not the only one who had been surprised about the house the kid had been raised in. Reuben had been here before, but only once and that was around 20 years ago, however he was also surprised at how he had underestimated this place. Annie came from old money, he had always known that, but he had kind of forgotten about it until now.

"Good you're here, let's go." Everyone spun around as Linus walked into the room, followed by Stella, and headed straight for the front door.

"We just got back." John told him, surprise evident in his voice.

"Well you should have driven faster." Everyone in the room was surprised to hear him say that, the kid didn't speak much (not in large groups anyway) and he definitely didn't argue.

"We were driving at speed limit." Rob informed him.

"Well, I'll bet there were cars lined up behind you for miles," Linus turned and continued for the door. "Now I really don't care if you come," he told then "but if you are leave now or you'll be late." With that Linus turned and led the way out the door.


	8. Preparations

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

* * *

Rob held the binoculars up to his eyes as he watched the house. The guy had $100 million and he was certainly making sure everyone knew it, but Rob somehow wasn't as amazed by the size as he should have been. He figured staying in the Caldwell's, as he had been for a few days before heading to LA, would do that.

This was there 2nd day in LA and it was Rob's turn for surveillance. Since arriving they had yet to catch a look at Steve, he had been in and out in _ROB'S_ car, but the windows were all tinted. Leaning back in his seat Rob lowered the binoculars understanding why the Malloy's had been complaining about being bored after returning from their turn at surveillance yesterday.

One of the curtains opened and Rob sat up with interest pulling the binoculars up, he could see the back of Steve's head over the top of the couch as he flicked through channels on the giant TV which had been delivered only yesterday. Rob raised an eyebrow as Steve stopped flicking on Jerry Springer, he couldn't read the words on screen, but Rob figured it was probably about some guy sleeping with his girlfriend's mother, if the ages of the people on screen were anything to go by.

Already feeling pored with the show Rob leant back, and wondered how he got stuck doing surveillance on his own. Usually he'd go with Left-ear, but he was off doing god knows what with bombs and Basher. It was funny the way they had just hit it off.

Taking a drink of his coffee, Rob raised his binoculars and continued to watch Steve.

* * *

"Thanks… yeah… they went to LA… no, I'm not going I'm sure they'd be happy to see you though… suit yourself... okay, bye Saul."

Stella walked into the room, as Linus hung up the phone, and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Saul," he told her not needing to hear the question, "He's part of 'the team'"

"Why isn't he in L.A?"

"He's old, said something about wanting the last check he writes to bounce." Linus told her. Stella nodded still not really understanding.

"Anyway," she said changing the subject. "What are we doing now?"

"Well," Linus started taking a sip of coffee, "I was going to go back home and hope for the best. Why?"

Stella shook her head, "I meant what are you gonna do with this place? Are you moving back in?"

Linus paused looking around himself, at the familiar walls of the sitting room, he hadn't even thought about that. Shrugging he turned back to his old friend "I don't know, didn't even think about it. It's a family house." The last part was said in a low voice, as though he was reasoning more with himself then with her.

Stella nodded in agreement, "That it is," she said "but even if you don't move back here, you've got to move out of that tiny apartment."

"I like my apartment" Linus argued weekly, feeling somewhat offended by the comment.

"Oh come on Len," Stella rolled her eyes at him, "you only bought it 'cause you thought that you acted like some spoil rich kid." Seeing he was about to argue she continued, "Which you did," she said too keep him quiet "but you don't anymore. Those guys totally didn't know you were rich. I mean did you see their faces."

Linus paused and looked back trying to remember the moment just a few days ago, before shaking his head and shrugging, "No, I don't think I was really with it then."

"Well I can't say I'm surprised, you only had one cup of coffee that morning."

"Yeah"

Stella paused, before noticing the mug in his hand. "How may have you had this morning?"

"I'm not sure." He told her, "enough to keep me going for a few hours."

"You know what else would keep you going for a few hours?" Stella asked fake excitement evident in her voice, "Sleep!"

Linus didn't answer, really not wanting to get into that again. He knew Stella cared but this was beginning to annoy him a little, but if he said that out loud she'd just tell him he was grumpy from lack of sleep. _At least she's moved on from food_, he thought wistfully.

Deciding to change the subject Linus spoke up, "Maybe I will,"

"Sleep?" Stella was honestly shocked by that, she really hadn't thought it would be that easy.

"No." he said, and she deflated a little, "move back in."

"You should," Stella told him, "It should be lived in."

He nodded quietly and they both stood quietly for a moment, "what about you?" Linus asked her suddenly.

"What about me?" Stella repeated.

"Where are you and Charlie going to live after the wedding?" he asked "have you told your dad yet?" he added as an extra thought.

"No we haven't told him," she informed him quietly, "but we're going too, and I don't know where we're going to live." She said, before shrugging and adding, "maybe his place."

Linus's face expression seemed to almost change then, into slight shock. It was gone as quickly as it came, but Stella was happy to know it had been there. "You're leaving Chicago?" he asked.

Stella just shrugged lightly, "well no, not yet anyway. I'll give you plenty of notice." She assured him.

Linus nodded slowly, before another though occurred to him. "Do you think we should pack up sone of their stuff?"

Stella paused, thinking the question over, she wasn't exactly an expert on post-funeral conduct, after a moment she shrugged "We could probably do it later, it's not like you completely need their rooms or anything, plus doesn't a lot of the stuff around here come from your great-grandparents?"

Linus nodded in confirmation of her question. "Well we have to do something." He muttered. It was easy if there were distractions, while they had to plan the funeral he had something else to think about, now he was really running out of options and just wanted something to keep himself amused. "What to see what's on TV."

Stella nodded, only slightly surprised by the sudden change in conversation, she knew him too well to not know what had been going through his head.

Turning they headed into the TV room.

* * *

"Mr Frazelli I assure you, the Carson's security system is top of the line. You won't need to worry about any of that." Danny, or Mr Silverton, assured Steve, as Rusty nodded on beside him. "If you wouldn't mind coming into the office on Thursday to finish off some paper work we can have it installed before the end of the week."

Rusty took a quick glance towards the door just in time to see Yen zip the bag back up with himself inside it.

Organising a time for Thursday Rusty picked up the bag, which was surprisingly light considering Yen was inside it. Giving Steve his best 'I'm a salesman smile' Rusty got into the car next to Danny and drove off the property to where Livingston, Charlie, and Left-ear were waiting.

"Well he seemed extremely proud of himself." Danny muttered, Rusty didn't answer. They had always been told to not let their feelings get involved in their work, but there was really no helping this. Johns team was taking it a lot more personally then their guys, but Rusty liked to be careful, he liked to know what was going to happen, and what anyone he was working would do if something went wrong. Anger could blind people though, make them unpredictable, stupid even. If it had been any other job he would have considered leaving, but they needed the money.

Rusty heard a zip opening and took a quick glance in the rear view mirror as Yen appeared from the bag. "Did you find it?" he asked. Yen answered with a quick nod, and a comment in Chinese about how the guy needed a decorator.

They drove back to the warehouse mostly in silence, only making the odd comment about LA architecture.

They pulled into the car park just after Livingston, "Did you get it?" Danny asked as he stepped out of the car.

"Yeah," Livingston answered quickly, Rusty could see the perspiration building up on his forehead. "Lyle managed to load up the blueprints, so between them we'll know what's inside."

"Good" Danny nodded and led them inside the warehouse. To where John and Charlie were looking at the computer generated blue prints over Lyle's shoulder. "Does it look like the original plan will work?"

John turned to look at them and nodded, "Yeah, a car won't fit though; we'll need a small buggy. Frank, Rob and the Malloys are looking for one now."

"Good," Danny said, surprisingly glad that there were more people then himself and Rusty here to take control. "We set up an appointment with Steve for 10:00 on Thursday, so we'll do the job then."

Charlie seemed slightly surprised at the time restraints, but he just nodded before turning back to talk to Lyle.

* * *

REVIEW!

Sorry forgot to write that on the bottom of the last chapter.

Also I won't be updating for the next 2 months or so because I'm going on exchange. But I'll try to get right back into it when I get back.

Elle-05

P.S I have no objection about coming back to many reviews.


	9. Going Back a Bit

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or The Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Kuriei137, Darkdestiney2000 and Nina, thanks heaps for reviewing, hope you like this next chap.

* * *

Saul sat up slightly as Gloria entered the room with a tray of tea. "What's wrong?" She asked gently placing the tray on the table.

Saul shook his head in denial. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Gloria, but he had never told her about his past as a thief, and he knew she wouldn't react well if he did now.

"What did Danny want?"

Saul sighed and decided for a half truth, "The past few years Danny's been training this kid, and his parents died a few days ago." Gloria sat silently waiting for him to continue "I didn't really know them, I think we may have met a few years back."

"Are you going to go to the memorial?"

"No," Saul answered "It's already happened." After Eric had called him with the news he had called Rusty, but after three failed attempts he called Reuben who informed him that Danny Rusty and Linus had gone to see Matsui (Saul could almost hear the laugh in his voice) and hadn't returned yet. Saul hadn't been surprised he knew before Reuben, no matter how many times he would say he was out of the game people would call him with even the most unimportant news, and this was certainly not unimportant.

After hearing what Saul knew of the story Reuben hadn't spoken for a moment then muttered something about the kid, when Saul had questioned him Reuben explained that Danny had told him Bobby was the kid's father. Saul hadn't been surprised, he always knew the kid had been raised by a thief, making a lift came too naturally for him not to have been.

Saul remembered one night in Vegas, the twins had been dragging Linus out on the town with them, and an old man had bumped into the kid as they were leaving the hotel, the man then turned around and told Linus off about not watching where he was going, the kid had given him an innocent smile and said sorry before dragging the twins outside. The whole team had seen the exchange, but Saul was certain that himself, Reuben, Danny and Rusty were the only who saw the kid take the man's wallet when he turned back before he had even starting yelling.

It was a reflex, too natural for someone who wasn't trained from a young age. However Saul had assumed he was raised by someone older than Bobby. The kid was old fashioned, that had been one of the first things everyone noticed about him, next to being quiet, naive and green. It came out in his manners more than anything else, after the incident with the old man the twins, who Linus had had to drag away from yelling at the man, had liked messing with him, just to see if they could get a rise out of him. Saul had been happy to see that after failing the first week they got bored and moved on to messing with Livingston.

After the funeral Danny had called to tell Saul they were going to LA and asking if he'd come, Saul hadn't been surprised by the request he'd known Danny a long time, he was persistent, and not use to not getting his way. When Saul asked how the kid was doing Danny paused for a moment before saying 'ok.' Danny went on to give him a quick recount of the past day and how he hadn't really spoken to anyone except John and Stella, Saul thought he sounded a little jealous, of course Danny had denied it, honestly sometimes Saul doubted that he had ever grown up.

_Danny spotted John over by the sliding doors and turned towards him, he looked tired like he hadn't slept properly in the past few days, not that anyone could blame him for that. _

_After a quick introduction they divided off into cars, "How are they?" Danny asked John as they left. _

"_Alright," he answered eyes not moving from in front of him "Surprised I guess, angry." Danny just nodded and decided not to press, it was obvious the other man didn't want to talk about it._

_The silence was broken by Rusty asking Charlie about Steve. They spoke about the job and organised a base plan, easily changed of course, they hadn't seen the house yet._

_Danny noticed the buildings thinning around them and turned to John, who was sitting beside him driving, "Should we check into a hotel?"_

_John seemed surprised by the question but then smiled a little turning back to Danny "You've never been to the Caldwell's before." It wasn't a question. "No, Annie wouldn't have heard of it, you can stay at the house." John chuckled lightly and muttered "wow, got to hand it to Linus, he really did beat himself out of it." John paused and sat up a bit straighter as if he had just thought of something, "speaking of which, how well do you know Lenny?" _

_Danny though for a moment before answering slowly, "Alright, how is he?"_

_John didn't respond for a moment. He looked worried and Danny began to wonder just how long he had known the kid. It was obvious John had know Linus a lot longer than he had, probably since he really was just a kid. "I've seen him on better days," John said slowly, "He's keeping himself busy, Stella's worried." Off Danny's questioning look he added, "My daughter, Bobby looked after her while I was locked up."_

"_Right," Danny wished he had something more to say, he always had something to say, improvisation was one of his strong point, but now he was coming up blank. _

_As the car slowed down Danny looked out at the large cream coloured house and made sure that nothing he was thinking was shown on his face 'they'd definitely all fit here.'_

_Walking in Danny only gave himself a moment to admire the old staircase and portraits, Tess had taught him a bit about paintings and architecture, Danny guessed from the staircase the house had been built around the late 1800's._

"_The others should get here in just a minute," John told him absently as he opened a door as if looking for someone before frowning and closing it again._

"_Who are you looking for?" Danny asked as John walked over to another door._

"_The kids, we'll have to go soon" John shrugged as he shut the last door, "they'll be here" John said turning back to him, but John was off his game and Danny could tell he was trying to convince himself of that._

* * *

_Rusty listened to the priest's short eulogy and had to give the kid some credit for managing to find a priest who would perform a ceremony on deaths that wouldn't even be in the paper. _

_Danny and Reuben were standing next to him, Basher and the others just behind them. _

_Linus was standing over with John, Charlie and Stella, after a very short and somewhat surprising greeting at the house the kid hadn't even looked their way, Rusty wouldn't have been surprised if he had forgotten they were there._

_As the coffins were placed inside the mausoleum and the door was closed John lay a hand on the kid's shoulder, Linus didn't seem to notice. He had stood completely still the whole time they'd been there, his face was still blank like it had been in Italy, and the dark glasses he was wearing blocked them from seeing his eyes._

_Stella was the only one making any noise by crying lightly on Charlie's shoulder, Rusty knew by the way Charlie was rubbing her back that there was something going on between them. _

_The priest had stopped talking and stood in silence. No body moved until Turk broke the silence by shuffling slightly, that seemed to break the trance and everyone started moving Stella pulled away from Charlie to take Linus's arm and lead him away. _

_No one said anything in the drive back to the house, but once they got there Linus disappeared, and Stella played host making sure that everyone had a room and knew their way around (or at least just how to get from their room to the dining room, living room and front door). _

_Half an hour found them all sitting around the living room in silence, Rusty glanced around Linus wasn't even in the room but still no one knew what to say, everyone had a drink in their hand and most people were just staring at their shoes._

_They sat there for what felt like hours before a voice broke the silence "So, who feels awkward?"_

_Rusty looked up to see Linus leading against one side of the doorway, he looked a lot better and appeared to almost be smiling. _

"_I'm not" Stella informed him from her place on the couch, "I feel right at home." She seemed to find the thought that she could ever not be at home here offensive and Rusty couldn't help but laugh at the exchange._

"_So," Turk said happy the silence had been broken, "Where do you keep the T.V" _

_The rest of the night was spent watching movies and playing poker, Rusty, Danny, Reuben, John and Charlie started up a game and by the third inning John had talked Linus into playing, the kid had never played with them before and Rusty was surprised to find he was good. Though it was hard to tell if the poker face was from practise or just how he had looked for the past few days._

"_Did your dad teach you to play?" Reuben asked the kid as Charlie dealt a hand._

"_No, LeMarc and grandpa taught me when I was like 5, said something about how awful it would be if I was taught by someone more trust worthy." _

"_You know LeMarc?" Reuben asked, Linus just nodded not finding it a very big deal. _

_Linus looked up and paused as he saw the almost surprised look on Reuben's face. "See, this is what you guys forget," Linus told him, "I grew up here, I probably know everyone you know, and I know them better because they've known me since I was in grade school and trust me because of that, I could call up about anyone in the inner circle to ask a favour and they'd do it for me, especially this week." He paused for a second "Hell," he added as an after thought "I know people you think are dead."_

_No one spoke for a minute, Rusty realised that was probably the most they had ever heard the kid say in one shot, and considering how many people there were in the room it was surprising, no one really knew the 'inner circle' which consisted of LeMarc, Tom Bishop (who hadn't been seen in almost 30 years), and a handful of others. Rusty wondered if Bobby had been expecting the kid to do this, and was training him since birth._

_The game only went for another few hands before Charlie announced he was going to bed, the plane would leave early in the morning. When Rusty left Linus was just sitting down to watch the French news, the T.V having been deserted by everyone else hours ago._

Danny had told Saul that when he went to get breakfast he could hear John talking to the kid in the living room, Danny couldn't make out all the words but it sounded like the kid had been up all night, and this wasn't the first time.

Gloria shifted in the chair opposite Saul drawing his attention back to her, "I'm going to go and see him," Saul announced seemingly out of the blue.

Gloria however wasn't at all surprised and only nodded in understanding.

* * *

(Now I usually hate it when people writ in script format, but I'm gonna do it right now anyway 'cause I can't make this sound right otherwise.)

"5:00, Steve leaves home to meet myself and rusty for a meeting" Danny began looking around at the other members of the considerably large group who would be pulling the job.

Lyle: "As soon as he leaves, I start hacking in to the system"

Rob: "5:10, me and Turk deliver Yen in T.V box"

Basher: "5:20, I knock out the guards"

Lyle: "5:25, I shut down the system"

Rusty: "5:27, Yen pulls the switch to open the gates"

John: "5:28, Charlie, Frank, Virgil and I enter through the gates go straight down the corridor and I start picking the safe."

Virgil: "5:30, I'm controlling the buggy from inside the truck, I send it down to the safe."

Charlie: "John's picked the safe we load the gold onto the buggy."

Frank: "5:40, we get Yen load the van and leave."

Basher: "Lyle and I meet Livingston and Left-Ear in the other van."

Danny: "We finish our meeting, and we're out"

"Okay," Rusty said stepping forward happy they all had the plan down "We'll meet back here at 3:00 tomorrow, tonight and tomorrow do what ever you want." A small cheer came up from the Malloy's

Danny and Rusty walked over to join John and Charlie, "Are you sure we shouldn't call Linus?" Charlie was asking in a quiet voice. They both looked up as the other two joined them but didn't stop the conversation.

"Lenny knows what we're doing," John told him in a calm voice "he decided not to come." Charlie didn't seem completely convince but didn't disagree. "Want to grab a drink?" John asked Danny conversationally.

"Why not," Turning the four of them headed out the door.

* * *

Hey everyone, sorry it's been ages sinceI last updated.

REVIEW!

I do like to know what everyone's thinking.

Also I'm sorry not much really happens in this chapter, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace next chapter.


	10. The LA Job

**The Ocean's Job**

Kuriei137, darkdestiney2000, and Stella828, thanks heaps for reviewing. Stella if you ever do find that movie please tell me cause I'd love to see it to.

* * *

Steve pulled out of his driveway on his way to meet Mr Silverton and Mr Krabbs for his meeting. Unbeknownst to him a small man watching his actions on a small screen in front of him leant towards a microphone and said "guys we're on"

Rob turned and gave Turk a nod before lightly nailing the lid to the large television box.

Lyle typed the codes into his computer and bit his lip to hide his excitement as the security codes appeared on the screen.

Basher set himself up with a clean shot through the window of the guard's compartment and waited for Lyle's signal.

Danny sent a quick look towards the camera in the ceiling before sharing a look with Rusty and walking across the room to greet Steve with a huge smile on his face. "Mr Frazelli, how are you?"

"Fine." Steve answered shortly straightening up his suit and looking around the room. "When can you set it up properly?"

Lyle let out a small whoop as he got through the temporary security system. "Guys I'm in."

Livingston pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and a picture of Yen pushing the lid off the TV box inside the house appeared on the screen.

Basher pulled the trigger on his cross bow getting a clear shot through the slightly opened window of the guard's compartment, and watched with a small smile as the gas rose and both guards were knocked out.

Yen pushed the button for the front gates and nodded towards the camera in a signal for Livingston.

"John you can go" Livingston told John.

Virgil drove the car around to the front of the house and through the open gates. Stopping the car at the door Yen opened it from the inside while John and Charlie got out of the back and went inside to pick the safe.

* * *

Benedict was unimpressed that Ocean and his team had been unable to get the money as of yet. Their time was almost up and he knew they had nothing.

Benedict was not a stupid man (contradictory to whatever Tess may have decided), and he had been keeping a tab on them. He knew that Saul had decided not to go, he followed them to Europe, and he followed Caldwell back.

Benedict had assumed he was running, stupid of him really. Not that Benedict was particularly surprised. When Benedict spoke to Linus the kid was scared (though whether it was of death or his father Benedict couldn't tell).

Toulouse had called Benedict later telling him the kid's father was killed, shot by a team mate. Benedict had only just managed to bite back his laughter. He had been unable to find much about Linus Caldwell in all his research. The kid had never been arrested and had no criminal record of any kind, his father on the other hand, had 6 arrests listed, the longest of which was for 3 months. Another call to Toulouse told him that the Bellagio had been his first job. Meaning Ocean must have dragged him in probably as a pupil of sorts.

However Benedict had no interest what so ever in the kid, his aim was to get to Ocean. And Benedict was going to do that by making him watch all his team mates die before him.

Benedict had considered starting with Saul or Rusty. Saul had taken Ocean in for his first job, but Rusty had come in with him.

However now he had changed his mind, the kid was the youngest, Ocean had check up on him incessantly in past 3 years, and as Ocean had dragged Caldwell into the job in the first place there was always the good chance Ocean would blame himself.

The others could come later.

* * *

Linus didn't even look up from his book as the library door was pushed open and Saul walked in. Saul walked over and took a seat on the sofa facing the kid's chair. "Kid?" he asked after still not getting any response. Leaning forward Saul tapped Linus's shoulder and calmly leant back chuckling as the kid almost jumped out of his seat.

"Saul." Linus said in greeting having calmed down, "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd drop around," Saul answered airily looking around at the book covered walls surrounding him before setting his gaze on the kid. "You look like shit."

The kid just blinked and sat back in surprise at the older man's comment. "Thanks," he said unsurely, feeling that he may know where this was going. After all even in the small time he had spent with the both of them Linus had heard Saul lecture Rusty on taking care of himself more times than he could count.

"How long have you been doing it?" Saul asked, leaning back comfortably and waiting for a look of confusion to cross the kid's face. Saul had seen it enough times throughout Vegas and the few times they had seen each other since then, at first it had seemed like even second sentence anyone said to him would bring it on. He didn't know whether to be impressed or disappointed when the look never came.

"Doing what?" Linus asked, his face blank.

"Forcing yourself to stay awake." Saul answered.

Linus just shook his head and laughed softly, "I've already heard the speech," he said turning back to Saul, "Stella's had it on rerun for the past few days."

Saul sat up interested when he heard that "Who's Stella?"

"A friend," Linus answered like it was something he had said a thousand times before, "She lived here while her dad was in jail." Off Saul's look he added "John Bridger."

"So, you've been forcing yourself to stay awake and refusing to eat for the past week, and your friend Stella, as well as I'm guessing John, Danny and probably Reuben lectured you on it."

Linus stuttered for a second trying to decide what to say. "Danny said nothing all night." He finally said in denial.

Saul just nodded slightly. Deciding he wasn't going to get anywhere with this half-interrogation. "What were you reading?" He asked nodding towards the open hardback book on the table.

* * *

Yen opened the door for Charlie and John to enter the house and followed them down to the cupboard holding the safe. Charlie stood back in silence as John started opening in the safe.

Virgil let the ramp at the back of the van down and using the control he drove the buggy out of the van, into the house and out along to meet the other three at the safe.

Frank sat up as he heard what Steve was saying "I'll need you to check on someone."

Rusty nodded waiting for him to continue but Steve wasn't paying any attention to him, he was scanning the room as if he expected to see something. Rusty could notice at least three flaws in his technique, eventually Rusty got bored of Steve's attempt at subtlety and asked "who?"

"I don't know what her first name is, but the last one's Bridger," he told them, "I think she's about 25, lives in Chicago."

Danny nodded in consent, "We'll look into it," he assured Steve. Danny wondered why Steve didn't want to check on Linus, but then assumed it was just that Steve didn't know about the kid. Bobby didn't talk half as much as John does, everyone who had been on a job with John knew he had a daughter, but Linus was a well kept secret.

Steve nodded and laughed turning towards Danny and Rusty, "Of course you will," he had a victorious look on his face, "I wouldn't be surprised you already had."

All of Livingston's screens went blank and his microphone died, he started typing furiously on the keyboards trying to get it back, "Danny, Rusty, John, can anyone hear me?" not getting an answer he turned around to face Left-Ear "Can you check the connection outside?" he asked and not waiting for an answer turned back to the blank screens.

Basher met Lyle and they started back towards Livingston's van. Someone grabbed Bashers arm and he tried to turn around as someone pulled his hands behind him.

John looked up from what he was doing as a figure walked into his light. He paused and heard Yen mutter something in Chinese.

* * *

REVIEW!

Authors note: Hey guys I know it's been awhile but I'm almost done now.


	11. Aftermath

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters relating to them.

Authors note: sorry I left it so long, I wasn't sure how to go about this chapter, so it's a bit of a stepping stone, kind of just finishing of the last one.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

* * *

"Excuse me?" Rusty asked Steve, with no sense of confusion on his face.

Steve smirked back at him gloatingly, "Well I figured sometime during your trip to Chicago John would have wanted to drop by and see her." Steve let out a small laugh clearly enjoying his victory, "I'm really almost insulted John thought something this simple would work on me."

He nodded to someone looking over Rusty's shoulder and two burly police guards came in and cuffed Rusty, Danny, whilst two others pulled Reuben and Frank to their feet. Before slipping cuffs on them and walking them down to where Steve was standing with Danny and Rusty.

Another officer walked over to Steve, ignoring the four men in handcuffs, "We've sent some teams out too your premises, Mr Frazelli," The guard informed him, "We'll be sure to get all their friends" he added sneering towards the handcuffed men in front of him.

Steve nodded quickly at the officer, then turned and ignoring everyone around him walked outside to his car.

The four thieves were dragged outside and thrown into the back of two police cars, while onlookers looked on and whispered to each other trying to follow the proceedings.

* * *

John looked up to see a burly police officer standing over him as three more came in through the open doorway. Biting back a curse John took his hands away from the safe and stood up slowly.

"Hands behind your head!" The first officer barked at him, "all of you." He added casting a quick look at Charlie, Virgil and Yen.

Once John, Charlie, Virgil, and Yen were all handcuffs one of the policemen started going through their rights as they were forced down the hallway and out the front door, past a team of forensic officers who were going to examen and package all the evidence.

Walking down the driveway towards the police cars John could hear two of the policemen in charge taking about the case.

"It looks like they sent their friends out to distract Mr Frazelli," The first one was saying "We found a van out the front with two guys, they had videos set up all over the house and more watching Mr Frazelli's meeting…"

John couldn't hear the rest of the sentence as he was pushed into the back of a police car. They had them.

* * *

Basher spun around and let out a breath of relief when he saw Turk standing behind him. "What the bloody hell are you doing?" he hissed.

Turk didn't answer but grabbed Basher and Lyle's arms and dragged them over to where Rob was waiting in the van.

"Seriously, what's going on?" Lyle asked, after Rob had started driving.

Turk took a quick look out the back window before answering. "We were heading back to the warehouse and we passed these two police cars, so we turned around and came back. They've got Livingston, Left-Ear, John, Charlie, Yen and Virgil."

"Shit!" Basher hissed under his breath.

"W-what do we do?" Lyle asked Turk.

Rob looked back at him through the rear-view mirror, "We do nothing," Rob said. Lyle seemed surprised and was about to argue when Rob cut him off. "We have to go back to the warehouse and see how it went for Danny, we'll work out what to do then."

Lyle just nodded slowly not sure what to say.

No one spoke as they walked back into the warehouse and waited for news about Danny and the others. After 20 minutes of waiting Lyle decided to break into the police system and found that the others had been arrested just after John and his guys were.

* * *

Saul nodded half listening as the kid told him about all the portraits lining the walls dating back what seemed like a dozen generations. Saul found it strange that he didn't know what to do, men like Saul always knew what to do and had a back up plan, needed to in his field of work. He had come here to check on the kid but he wasn't sure how to go about it.

Every time he tried to talk to the kid he'd either change the subject or just ignore him. He'd liked the kid since he first met him in Vegas he was green and unlike most kids wasn't afraid to admit it. Another thing he probably got from growing up around some of the best thieves in the world.

After their short talk in the library Saul had asked the kid to show him around which had lead to this very long discussion of long dead ancestors. Checking his watch Saul turned towards Linus, effectively stopping the kid mid sentence.

"I should get going," Saul said. Linus just nodded and started walking towards the front door. Pulling it open the kid stood back so Saul could leave.

"Have a nice night," Saul got the feeling the kid said it more out of politeness and habit then really caring.

"You too," Saul stood a few steps ahead of Linus on the veranda but Linus didn't make eye contact, his gaze wavered between the ground and the long driveway leading up to the door. After a few moments Saul began turning to leave, "Night Dodger."

Linus's eyes met his for what could have been the first time since Saul had arrived, and he had to bite back a smirk, "Think about it," Saul began walking away until a voice caught his attention again.

"Oliver Twist," When Saul turned back the kid was looking straight at him, it didn't happen much to him, but this kid was one of the few people who's eyes could almost make Saul feel like he was being read inside out. "My friend use to call me that." The kid told him.

Saul didn't get a chance to respond because the kid slipped back into the house and closed the door.

* * *

REVIEW! 


	12. Trust or Naivety

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any of their characters.

Thanks for reviewing Kuriei137 and Nina.

* * *

Stella gave Rosa a warm smile as she walked into the kitchen where Rosa was doing dishes.

"Have you seen Linus?" She asked grabbing an apple out of the bowl.

Rosa shook her head, "He was here a few hours ago, but just said something about Dodger and left."

Stella jumped when she heard that "Dodger?" She asked.

Rosa nodded not understanding quite what the big deal was. "I think his friend might have called him that," noticing the younger woman's confused look she added "a man stopped by earlier, I think his name was Mr Saul."

Stella nodded remembering their conversation a few days ago. "So Linus went with him?"

Rosa shook her head, "No he left afterwards. What's wrong honey?" The older woman's mothering instincts kicked in seeing the confused and slightly worried look on Stella's face.

"Nothing," she said a little too quickly, "I'm fine."

Turning quickly she walked out of the room grabbing the cordless phone on the way. She punched in his mobile number quickly and listened to the ringing. Stella had known him long enough to know he probably wouldn't answer the phone considering he probably didn't want to speak and this was the first time he'd left the house in days.

After three tries she gave up and instead called her father, she knew she was overreacting, but she was always like that. Anyway couldn't hurt to check how he and Charlie were doing.

* * *

Nobody had spoken since they were brought in almost 2 hours ago. They were sitting around on the benches of the one large cell. They were to be sent off in two days to separate prisons around the US.

Charlie turned towards John who was sitting beside him, "Shouldn't you call…"

Charlie never managed to finish his sentence because John just waved him off muttering something about how the officers would do it.

Charlie saw Virgil shoot them a confused look, obviously having seen the exchange. Charlie didn't really care. It wasn't that John didn't care about Stella as Virgil was probably thinking, he just felt guilty. John had spent majority of Stella's life in a jail cell, he just didn't want to end up there again.

Personally Charlie doubted they would end up in jail for too long, he was confident Linus would get them out, or find someone else to do it. And if not there was always the older guy who had dropped out that Danny had spoken about.

Of course John always said that Charlie's biggest problem was his confidence. At first Charlie thought that was just his way of saying naivety, but that had changed after meeting Linus and realising that he must have been who john based his levels of naivety on.

It wasn't that he was stupid or anything. He just had a lot of faith in other people. And even what Steve had done hadn't broken him out of it, not yet anyway.

Charlie wished someone would just say something. He could see Danny and Rusty talking quietly but couldn't make out anything they were saying, probably something about Benedict.

Though he'd never admit it, he didn't really understand these guys. They had a reputation, a great one and considering how well they seemed to know John he had originally been surprised he had met them before. It was when they were discussing the job he actually worked it out. They went about things a different way to John and his own team. It was the kind of difference that people might draw between thieves and con artists.

People like Danny and Rusty liked to play their marks, watch their faces when they realised what had happened. People like himself didn't really care. Sure Charlie would have enjoyed seeing Steve's face but usually he would only meet the mark to see the location, openings and such.

Taking another glance around Charlie could see nobody else had any intention of speaking. Swallowing a sigh he leant back against the wall, 'yeah,' he thought to himself 'Linus will get us get out.'

* * *

Rob ran a hand through his hair. They had already gone through this. Stevewould be watching the gold even more then before,and no matter how much Basher argued it, there wasn't anything they could do. He'd be waiting for them.

By now he would know himself and Lyle were still alive and not in jail, and everyone knew about Ocean's eleven. No matter how little Rob thought of Steve he was pretty sure he would be able to work out that only seven of them were locked up. They had missed their chance.

Taking a deep breath he reminded himself to keep the eyes on the road and not turn around and hit someone for their stupidity.

It was Turk who broke the silence, "There's got to be something we can do," he said, he sounded about as fed up of this conversation as Rob was.

The others had been arrested 3 days ago and with only about 4 days left to pay back Benedict Rob did understand they were probably getting a bit nervous. Of course Rob had never met Benedict, but from what he had heard Benedict seemed like the kind of guy to live up to his word.

"What about a daisy dip?" Basher asked not happy to give up.

"Not enough people" Turk told him clearly not any happier with the situation than Basher.

Rob stopped the van and climbed out, trying to ignore the others who were listing possible cons which certainly wouldn't work. Pushing open the doors of the warehouse he said over his shoulder to them. "Guys, he's looking for us as it is, we'd be lucky if we got within 50 feet of him or the gold without being caught."

"Yeah," came another voice form the corner, "But this game's all about luck really, isn't it."

Everyone turned around and was surprised to see Linus there leaning against a table. They could hardly make him out, he was in the darkest corner, and as always wasn't the kind of person who would catch a person's attention the moment they walked into the room.

"So," Linus continued conversationally, "Have you been keeping an eye on him?"

Rob took a small step back unable to form words for a moment. Eventually getting over either his surprise or annoyance Rob pulled himself together. "Oh, come on Linus, not you too!" Linus turned to look at Rob, but his eyes didn't quite focus. "I've just spent 3 days trying to convince these guys that it's and awful idea. He knows us, and he'll be waiting."

Linus just shrugged "People are always waiting, the second someone gets money they sit around waiting for someone to try and take it." He moved his eyes over toward Turk and Basher. "Isn't that why no one really saw each other after Vegas, because we knew Benedict would want to take it back."

Everyone stood in silence for a moment. That was the first real insight into the world any of them had heard from him. Reuben would have been impressed.

"You never answered my question, have you been keeping an eye on him?"

Lyle nodded, "Yeah, but we haven't been able to tap into the phone lines. We know he's doing something, but we're not sure what."

"He's moving," Linus started almost before Lyle had even finished speaking. "He's boarding the gold onto a private plane in two days, the flight plan hasn't been set yet, and I'm guessing it won't be until he's in the air."

"Hold on." Basher said cutting in, "How do you know all this?"

Linus didn't answer for a moment "What difference does it make?" he asked "Do you want to do it?"

Everyone paused, Turk, Basher, Rob and Lyle gave each other a quick look. Eventually Rob gave a small sigh and raised his eyes to Linus. "Do what?"

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Authors Note: REVIEW!

I was reading through my earlier chapters and I just wanted to apologise for crappy grammar and some spelling, (also just some really lame parts). I left most of it but I realised that Reuben's part in chapter 6 made no sense so I've gone back and just fixed up some of the names, should I ever decide to write a sequel some of those characters will be important.


	13. How'd He Manage That One?

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11/12, the Italian Job or any of their characters.

Thankyou heaps for reviewing Stella828, and Kuriei137 just between you and me I have a piece of paper with all the character's names and where they are next to me while I'm writing. Also if you remember when everyone got arrested I had originally accidentally posted Basher and Lyle half getting caught but I tried to fix it in the next chapter. Glad you didn't notice.

* * *

Lyle glanced up from his computer as Rob pulled a chair up next to him. "What's wrong?" Lyle asked looking back at his screen.

Rob didn't answer for a minute. "I'm still not sure of this."

Lyle stopped typing and turned towards him, "Why not?" he asked "He knows what he's doing."

"Well I know he at least acts that way," Rob started "but there's a reason he didn't come in the first place…"

"He wasn't up to it." Lyle answered like it was something he had said hundreds of times before.

"And John never called him" Rob continued as if Lyle hadn't said anything.

"John didn't want to bother him,"

"What if he's not thinking straight, he's never run a job on his own before!"

"He's never run a job at all before," Rob looked at Lyle as if to say 'exactly'. Lyle just sighed, "You didn't have a problem going in with Charlie."

"Yeah and look how that that turned out," Rob scoffed, Lyle's head dropped a little and he turned back to his computer remembering everything that had happened. "I'm just not sure he completely understands what could go wrong."

"Oh, come on Rob!" Lyle answered exasperated. "No one's pretending this is perfect, but it's the best we've got. He said it himself, things can always go wrong."

"I'm just not convinced he knows how wrong,"

"You think he doesn't understand that we could end up in jail." Lyle said. It was a statement, not a question. "Didn't he a Stella live in the same house for like 8 years because John was in jail? He knows it could happen."

"Look," Rob said getting fed up, "His parents were thieves, and good ones at that, they never would have let him go to jail, there wasn't any danger there before, he could be careless." Rob paused hoping Lyle would at least consider what he was saying "He can't now, and he wants to go after the guys who killed his parents."

"Yeah, but he wasn't careless," Lyle said hoping to end the conversation. After a moments pause, and realising Rob had yet to change his mind Lyle sighed and turned back towards him, "Look," he said "I only met the guy a few days ago. I don't really know him."

"I know…" Rob started only to be cut off.

"Then why are you asking me? Talk to the guys who have known him for years and were on a job with him, they know him better then I do." Lyle pause, "It's not like it's just him, we're all here backing him, anyway between you and Basher he won't have a chance to make a mistake."

Rob didn't respond, Lyle was right of course, the plan was good. But one of the first things John ever told him was to never let emotions get involved, and whether you would ever tell it by looking at him or not. Linus's emotions were definitely involved in this.

Lyle checked his watch before starting to shut down his laptop. "If we're doing this we have to go." He said looking at Rob with a questioning look. Rob just nodded and led the way towards the van.

* * *

"Okay, I'm miched," Turk told Lyle through his ear piece. One of the two they had left after the others had been taken in as evidence, and it wasn't of high enough importance to have gotten new ones in the past two days.

"Good," Lyle answered him, "Remember your name's Tony Michaels, and you're new in from Phoenix, but it probably doesn't matter if you forget 'cause I doubt he'll ask you anyway."

As Turk got out of the car he thought he heard Linus mutter "Good luck," but when he turned back to say thanks the kid was just watching him quietly, almost calculatingly and it made Turk's skin crawl just a bit.

He had never seen Linus look like that before, and for a second Turk wondered if maybe Rob had been right, maybe Linus wasn't thinking straight. Isn't that what Reuben had said in Rome just after he found out Bobby and Annie were dead? That Linus was 'hardly on earth and couldn't think straight'? Of course every time Linus was asked about it he argued he was fine. And considering it would have taken a lot of thought, and contacts (some of which Turk was honestly surprised someone as innocent as Linus even had) to put this con together, it would suggest the kid was in the right set of mind. Then again there had to be at least a small part of Linus that was doing this just for revenge, but Turk hoped that part was small enough to know to pull out if anything went wrong.

Linus was still watching Turk. His face was blank now, the calculating look gone, but Turk found it didn't help much. He didn't look confused or questioning like he had the whole time they were in Vegas, but he also didn't look as innocent as he usually did and even that small change on the kid's face was enough to keep Turk's skin crawling for just moment.

Eventually without saying anything Turk just nodded and started up the path realising two things: Firstly, he couldn't worry about what Linus was thinking, because the only thing he had any control over now was how well he played his part. And secondly, that even though he had always somehow seemed really kind and innocent (even though he was a thief), Linus Caldwell would not be a nice person when pissed off.

* * *

Steve got out of his helicopter ignoring the drivers warning to wait for the propellers to stop, _what the hell did that fool know?_ Looking at his watch Steve was extremely unimpressed. They had arrived over 10 minutes late but the guy TNT was sending had yet to show up, Steve was pretty sure his name was Fielding. Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw the helicopter driver (what was his name, John? or Mike?) stiffen up. His eyes locked on something in Steve's blind spot, before he looked away, almost trying to seem non-challante. _Idiot_ Steve thought to himself before once again checking that the police were properly stationed to oversee the transaction.

"Mr Frazeli?" Steve turned to look at who had called that. A young man was walking towards him, "I'm Carlford Fielding." He finished holding out a hand for Steve to shake. The guy was young, average height, darkish hair, but there was something in his eyes Steve couldn't quite place. Instead he just put on a tight smile and shook he guys hand.

"You sounded older on the phone," Steve said conversationally, '_have to make sure it's the right guy'_ he thought to himself, John was in jail, but he didn't want to be too careful.

"Doesn't everyone?" Fielding asked smiling, "it's either that or tired."

Steve didn't smile back, but nodded. Checking his watch again he asked the younger man "How long will this take?"

"Not long," Fielding promised "They'll just move your merchandise to the plane, I'll give your final flight plans to the driver and you'll be off." Nodding towards the now open armoured van showing the safe inside he added, "Would you like to open your safe so we can move along?"

Steve just turned a glare on the younger man, "Why don't you just move the whole safe?"

Fielding turned to him looking slightly surprised, "You asked us to just move the merchandise sir." He said slowly as if trying to grasp the concept.

'_Idiot' _Steve thought holding in a groan and just sighed annoyed before turning his attention on the kid. "Look kid, I get you're new at this, and you're clearly not too bright but what I am asking is fairly simple." In a slower voice as if talking to a child he explained, "I'm not opening the safe. Get your guys to just move the whole thing to the plane. _Then_ I'll be on my way."

Fielding nodded, standing a bit straighter as if trying to look confident. "I'll need to call my office," he told his client "This will take a bit longer."

"I'll be here." Steve answered stonily. The kid just nodded slowly before turning to walk away motioning for Steve's helicopter driver to join him and pulling a mobile out of his pocket.

Steve waited in disgruntled silence as once again his helicopter deriver appeared driving out with a forklift to take the safe towards the private plane Steve had arranged earlier. Checking that the officers were all still stationed Steve followed the safe yelling at the driver to be careful as he lowered it into the baggage compartment '_Was this whole company filled with idiots_" he wondered snidely. Steve watched carefully as the forklift came back out on the plane was closed. "Mr Fielding just has to get someone at the office to change the paper work and you'll be ready to go." The driver told him.

Steve wasn't even listening to him and just waved his hand indicating for '_Mike was it?'_ to shut-up. Not for the first time that day Steve felt as though the driver was going to punch, so he just ignored him walking out into the sunshine once again. He gave a quick glance around looking for Rob or Lyle, hell that Caldwell guy might still even be alive. He couldn't' be too careful. Getting a burst of inspiration he walked over towards some of the officers prepared to offer them a few thousand to accompany him.

Steve was stuck there speaking with them for about 5 minutes, apparently they had to check his record or something, Steve didn't really care he had taken care of all that stuff when he came here. They were still waiting for their office to finish checking Steve's background when he saw Fielding walking towards him. This time a small apologetic smile on his face, "I'm sorry that took so long Sir," he said.

Steve just glared at him "Are you ready yet."

"Yes Sir, they're just bringing the plane out, it's ready for takeoff."

Steve brushed past Fielding and walked towards the plane, "There will be a few officers joining me for my trip."

Fielding just nodded not even bothering to look surprised "Alright Sir."

"What took so long?" Steve asked making it sound more like a demand.

"There was a slight problem with the driver and paper work," He answered smoothly, "but everything's fine now." He added quickly.

"Better be," Steve muttered waiting as the plane was driven out in front of them and the door opened.

Steve ignore Fielding's 'have a nice trip' as he walked up the steps into the plane. Helping himself to a beer and relaxing on a large comfortable couch.

Steve gave himself an enormous amount of credit of waiting there patiently for almost twenty minutes before getting up to check with the pilot for what was wrong.

He pulled to door open to the cockpit, but stopped dead when he found it empty. Feeling extremely confused He headed towards the main door to ask Fielding what the hell was going on, and where the hell the cops who were meant to be on here with him had gone.

Walking outside Steve stopped when he saw at least a dozen police cars surrounding him, officers by all of them pointing guns at him.

"Mr Frazeli" A guy with a loudspeaker said "Come down with your hands up. Do not return to your plane."

"What the hell is all this about!" Steve yelled out in frustration.

"We know everything," The officer continued "Mr Parkins. It will be easier on you if you just give yourself up."

"I haven't done anything wrong." Steve yelled back, _'Am I surrounded by idiots, they can't even run a simple background check.'_

The officer turned to speak quietly to man next to him who Steve realised was Fielding, he looked scared and confused, Steve needed to chock back a laugh. After a quick conference the officer nodded and put the loudspeaker up to him mouth again. "What's in the safe Steve?" He asked

Steve had to sigh seeing where this was going, but then again he didn't even know what it was they thought he had done wrong. '_And who the hell was Mr Parkins?'_ "Gold" he yelled down at them "It's just blocks of gold."

"Show us" the officer ordered gesturing. Some of his men went over to get Steve and bring him around to the luggage compartment.

Rolling his eyes Steve knelt down in front of the safe quickly putting the code in and turning the handle. He was pulled to his feet by a large officer standing behind him as the guy who had been carrying the loudspeaker pulled the door open. There were 5 sport bags inside, just as Steve had left it after preparing for the transaction.

Pulling out one that was on the top the officer pulled the zip open, Steve's mouth fell open when he saw what was inside. "I didn't put that there." He said quickly not understanding how this could be happening.

The policemen ignored him as another one walked forward taking another bag out and opening it spilling the contents out, then another, and another… Steve couldn't believe what he was seeing all the bags were full of cocaine.

He shook his head refusing to believe it. How the hell had John pulled this one?

Having seen enough the officer in charge grabbed Steve pulling his arms around behind him and putting handcuffs on them. "Mr Parkins, you're under arrest, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law…" Steve tuned out the rest of what the officer was saying as he was pushed towards a patrol car.

Steve saw Fielding watching him by the car standing next to that guy _Mike?_ There was something different about him now though, standing a bit taller, no longer confused. Again Steve thought he recognised the eyes, in a last effort Steve yelled out to him "Help me you idiot! Your men saw the gold yesterday, just ask them!"

Fielding didn't move, but Mike seemed angry and actually took a threatening step forward before the younger man stopped him. The officer looked quickly between Steve and Fielding trying to catch up on what was going on. "Do you know what he's talking about Mr Fielding?" he asked.

Fielding just shook his head and said sorry to the officer. The cop pushed Steve into the back of the car accidentally hitting his car against the door frame. As the door closed he heard Mike say to Fielding sounding very much upset, "I can't believe you didn't punch him."

Steve looked up at the younger man still watching and replayed the episodes of the past week. He couldn't control it he started laughing,yeah he had seen those eyes before.

* * *

REVIEW!

I realised my chapters were getting shorter and it was bugging me, so I made this one longer.

I think only 2 more chapters to go


	14. It all Happens Backstage

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11/12, the Italian Job or any of their characters.

Thank you Stella828, Jonna, and Kuriei137 for reviewing.

Originally i was going to post the first part of this chapter with the last one, but i decided doing it like this wouls make it more like the movie. AlsoI meant to post this chapter like 3 weeks ago just after the last one but when i finally finished itmy computer turned itself off and deleted half of it 'cause I forgot to save.

* * *

Linus drove away from Steve's in the direction of the airport to meet with Lyle, Basher and Rob.

Turk had been looking at him in a strange when he first got out of the car, like he saw Linus in a new light, and Linus wasn't sure if it was good or bad. But Turk had been acting strange the whole time. He was quieter than he usually was. Linus had just assumed it was because he had no Virgil to bounce arguments back and forth off, after all that was usually the noise he was making.

But he realised then that this plan had always involved Turk on his own doing all the acting and he wasn't sure if Turk had ever had an acting part at all. Linus knew he had had a few small ones back in Vegas, but still that was just arguing with Virgil, which they did anyway so really it was just nature.

Linus wondered for a moment if he should have said something to him, he was the only one on the team now who had really had to do it before. But he wouldn't have known what to say, and it might have just insulted Turk, he was after all older than Linus and had been doing this a lot longer. He had more experience, even if it was a different type.

Linus had wished him 'good luck' though, but he wasn't sure if Turk had heard him. It occurred to the pickpocket then that usually something like this would make him feel guilty, and he was surprised to find that he felt nothing, didn't even feel guilty about not feeling guilty, if that made any sense.

Shaking his head Linus decided it didn't really matter. So he turned his full attention to the road.

* * *

Lyle watched through his laptop as Turk walked up and leant against the helicopter waiting for Steve to turn up. Before Turk had walked away from the car he had turned around and given Linus a funny look, one which made Lyle think that Rob could be right. What if the kid wasn't all there?

He heard Turk say high to some of the guys who would be driving the armoured vans. It was typical of Steve to get decoy vans, but it didn't matter for their plan. Linus and Rob had made sure of it, but even if it had Turk would have been able to find out which one was real.

Lyle sat up a bit as Steve came into view. He was looking over his shoulder probably afraid of someone following him. Lyle choked back a laugh, '_like we'd be that obvious'_. Steve calmed down after realising that there was no one there and walked over to quickly shake hands with Turk.

Lyle heard Turk introduce himself, but eventhrough his ear piece Lylecould tell that Steve wasn't even listening _jackass_.

Turk and Steve finally got into the helicopter and Lyle could feel Rob stiffen slightly beside him as the propellers started going and they took off. Rob would have loved playing that part. He had never gotten to fly on a job before, and if it had been anyone else they were conning Lyle had no doubt that he would have fought tooth and nail for the part. However as Steve would recognise Rob he was stuck in the background with Linusand Lyle.

It all ran smoothly. Turk wasn't talking much, but whilst he couldn't hear it Lyle assumed Steve was just yelling instructions at him, so talking wouldhave been redundant.

Basher came in to tell them he was ready to go, and 5 minutes later Linus showed having just returned after dropping Turk. "Running smoothly?" he asked pulling up a chair behind Rob.

Lyle nodded turning to face him, "Steve seems more worried about keeping an eye on his vans then having an honest driver." He told Linus before checking his watch "They should be landing soon." Linus nodded leaning back in his chair.

Nobody spoke listening intently and watching through the window as Turk brought the helicopter down into the private airport always being careful not to be seen. There were four police cars outside, brought by Steve to secure the gold.

Linus sat up a bit straighter as the helicopter began to hit the floor. "Where's Mr Fielding?" he asked eyes moving around wildly looking for the older man on the landing.

Lyle immediately sat up and began searching through the digital video files only to come up blank.

Basher spoke up then with a hint of worry in his voice "I heard a news report. Apparently there's a huge jam on the M3 or something."

Linus nodded quickly "M3 comes from the west. That would be him."

"Look, if he's not here Steve won't make the transaction," Rob said from the window watching as the propellers slowed down.

"I could go," Basher said stepping forward, "Steve's never met Fielding."

"No you need to do your part" Linus told him shaking his head. "Steve's never met him," He added more to himself than anyone else. "Hey!" Linus looked towards Lyle and Rob "had Steve met my dad before Italy." They both shock their heads, "Would he know I exist."

"I doubt it" Rob answered, "why?"

"Make sure Fielding doesn't show up." Linus ordered simply, ignoring Rob's question and heading for the door. "Make sure you're ready."

"You can't be serious" Rob grabbed the younger man by the shoulder, "You can't go out there."

"Somebody has to," Linus answered turning around "Do you want to?" He cast a quick glance around the room waiting only a moment for someone to answer. Eventually Basher just wished him good luck. Nodding Linus turned and walked purposefully out the door.

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Turk leant against the helicopter watching Steve walk away. He was checking his watch and looking really pissed off. '_Probably upset he's not here yet'_ Turk thought to himself. That's all Turk had been hearing about for the past ten minutes, how late they were and how his company sure as hell better be ready to go. He took a quick glance over towards the door and almost jumped a little when he saw Linus walk out the door.

The kid shot him a quick glare that seemed to say 'calm down' before ignoring him, walking straight over to Steve and much to Turk's surprise shaking his hand, and actually managing to smile while he did it.

Turk watched them Steve was clearly annoyed and Linus seemed to be getting confused, but eventually the kid just nodded and turned away from Steve before motioning to Turk with his arm and walking back towards the building.

"Steve won't open the safe," Linus muttered as Turk caught up him.

"What do you mean?" He asked Linus trying to keep up, "What are you doing here?"

Linus didn't answer him and opened the door to the offices inside the warehouse muttering something to himself as he started up the stairs.

"Linus?" Turk asked trying to keep up with him. "Linus?" He yelled when the younger man didn't answer.

The kid spun around and looked at Turk like he had forgotten he was there, "what?"

"Why were you talking to him?" Turk asked calming down.

Linus turned and kept moving up the stairs "Fielding got caught in traffic. Someone had to go out there."

"And they chose you?" Turk asked

"I chose me." Linus said shortly.

They reached to office where Lyle, Rob and Basher were and pushed open the door.

"What's going on?" Rob asked "did he call you on it."

Linus just ignored him, "Steve won't open the safe,"

"What do you mean?" Basher asked

"He wants to move the whole safe onto the plane."

"Okay," Lyle said slowly, "So what do we do?"

"Well we've gotta move the safe," Basher said, "Can we do a switch? put in a different safe and have John open Steve's when he gets back."

"We don't have another safe." Rob snapped, venom seeping into his voice.

"So if we want to do this, we'll have to open the safe ourselves." Basher responded slowly after a pause.

"Turk," Linus said suddenly "I saw a forklift downstairs, you need to move the safe."

"Onto the real plane or the decoy one?" Turk asked

"We can't use a decoy one," Linus said making Basher give a small groan.

"What then?" Rob asked pulling back the curtain just a little too sneak a quick look at Steve who was checking his watch and glaring around. "Basher, can you open the safe?"

Basher shook his head, "Nah, I don't have any stuff, also to blow large safes and vaults you need someone on the inside."

Linus picked up an old phone and turned towards Lyle, "Can you turn this into a small microphone?"

"Why?" he asked taking the phone from Linus.

"Well," he started "My… the guy who taught me how to be a pickpocket"

"Your dad," Turk cut in.

"Yeah, sure…" he paused"anyway he taught it was important to notice small noises and movements and so on." Noticing the confused looks on the others faces he added, "in case the marks arm moves or that."

"Hold on," Rob said silencing him "Can you open it?"

"I don't know," he said making everyone slouch a bit, "I opened a much smaller one when I was 15. Guys,it's the only shot we've got."

"It's worth a shot," Basher agreed.

"I can rewire the phone," Lyle said splitting it open.

"I'm moving the safe," Turk turned around and headed down the stairs.

"We'll bring down the coke," Rob said nodding towards Basher.

"Here," Lyle handed Linus the disconnected hand set. "Good luck."

The pickpocket just nodded before walking out of the office.

Turk, Rob and Lyle remained in silence for a moment no one really knowing what to say. "You've got to give him some credit for trying." Rob said eventually.

"Yeah," Basher agreed "Probably shouldn't tell him that though."

"No," Rob agreed quickly shaking his head.

They heard a buzzing noise coming from Lyle's laptop and look over to see faces flashing across the screen. "They've started the ID check" Lyle explained. "We should get moving," he added, making them all jump to attention to take the bags and empty the room.

Coming down to the plane they were relieved to find that after 3 unsuccessful attempts Linus had actually managed to open the safe, when basher paused in shock he had said something about how being so large madethe noise echo and thereforeeasier to hear,Turk wasn't sure he believed it.

Linus went over to talk toSteve and it hardly took five minutes for them to remove all the gold from the bags and replace it with the drugs that they had yet to ask Linus where he got.

Rob, Basher and Lyle made their way back upstairswatched from the window as Turk drove the plane outand Stevepushed past Linus geton. A few minutes laterpolice cars surrounded the plane, apparently unnoticed by Steve. Turk however came down the stairs and moved over to where Linus was standing talking to who they could only assume was the officer in charge. They saw Steve come out and could hear him yelling, even when he was inside the plane, though he was standing a good few hundred meters away.

* * *

Turk shook Linus's hand which was holding him back off his arm and rammed his hands into his pockets,wondering if he had ever been quite this angry in his life. that guy hadn't actually done anything to him, yet he really wanted to hit him, and contrary to whatever it was Linus seemed to thing, he didn't get that feeling a lot.

Looking at the younger man beside him Turk could see the same look that had been on the pickpockets face before. Not the calculating one, but the blank one that he'd had while they were in Chicago, it had been easing up a bit in the past few days, but now it was back. Trying to relieve some of the tension hew was beginning to feel Turk almost whined "I can't believe you didn't punch him!"

Linus didn't answer, just stared at Steve and watched as he started laughing uncontrollably, the officers muttered something about how he was mad and drove off. Turk watched them leave followed by a line of cars bar 2 which had stayed to collect evidence befroe he started to move, only to be stopped by a voice beside him. "If I had started who's to sayI could have stopped," He turned towards Turk "Anyway, I got revenge," shrugging he added "It'swhen you get greedy that revenge gets messy."

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Elle-05


	15. Happy Endings

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11/12, the Italian Job or any of their characters.

Kuriei 137 thanks heaps for the review.

* * *

John gave Stella a quick hug as he got off the plane, over her shoulder he saw Danny and Rusty walk over to speak to an older man not far off.

"That's Saul," Stella told him following his line of vision, "I think Linus asked him to help."

John nodded and looked around, "Where is Linus?" he asked turning back to his daughter.

Stella gave a little shrug, not looking half as unfussed as she wanted the gesture to convey. "I haven't seen him," she told her father "Turk said he just disappeared after they got back, didn't even bother celebrating."

"They did the job?" John asked surprised.

"They did something," she answered, "I don't know the details, but Basher said Linus picked a Worthington 1000!"

"You're kidding," John answered impressed "I thought he sucked at that stuff. I must be a really good teacher."

Stella was about to respond when Danny walked over to them smiling, turning towards Stella he thanked her for getting them out, only to be told she hadn't really done anything.

Turned back to John he asked, "Are you guys up for a game? Reuben and Charlie are going to take care of getting the money to Benedict, and some of the other guys want to have a poker night."

John exchanged a quick look with Stella before turning back to Danny, "Sure," he said nodding "That could be fun."

Stella waited until Danny was out of hearing range to turn back to her father. "I think I should go find Linus. He's been gone a while."

"He'll come back." John told her, his tone was so convincing she almost believed him, "he can look after himself."

Stella didn't answer, she knew he could look after himself, but that wasn't the point.

Seeing that his daughter still wasn't convinced John added, "We can leave a note under his door so he knows where we are, and then he can join the party if he wants to."

Stella just nodded, still not too happy about the plan, but she knew that Linus knew she was there, and that if he wanted to talk he'd find her.

Her father took her by the shoulder and followed the others leading her off the landing.

* * *

Reuben had to admit he was impressed with how Charlie handled himself for someone his age. It could take years to move that much gold, but using a few contacts and a ridiculously thick pawn shop owner they had done it in 4 hours.

"Okay," Charlie said looking up at Reuben "We're done." Reuben just nodded as Charlie packed up Lyle's laptop, which he had been using to page the money through, and stood up. Then he realised it would take a few hours for the transaction to actually happen. "Should you call him?" he asked "let him know it's coming."

Reuben didn't answer for a moment and started walking out the door, "No need," he told Charlie, "Benedict will be checking it."

He sounded so sure that Charlie didn't even try to question him.

* * *

Charlie took a sip form the bourbon in his hand, watching as Rusty racked up another game of pool. They had started with trying to play poker, but gave up after a few games, no one could concentrate and Turk kept asking Danny to check his phone in case Benedict had called, whilst Danny was addiment he wouldn't.

Charlie looked up as John leant next to him against the bar. "How do you think he's taking it?" John asked, his eyes were fastened on Stella across the room, but Charlie understood who he was talking to, and about.

"I think he's taking it as well as he can." Charlie answered honestly. John nodded, but Charlie knew him long and well enough ton know it was more of a maybe then an agreement. "You don't think he is?"

John didn't answer for a moment, his eyes were still focused on Stella talking to Basher across the small bar. "I think he hasn't slept for over 2 hours in a week, that he's made himself un-contactable twice in that week (which he hasn't done since he was fourteen), and that in a group as large as this he'd rather act and lie than have anyone feeling uncomfortable or pitying him." He took a sip from his glass, waiting for Charlie to consider what he had just said. They stood in silence for a few minutes watching as the game played out. Charlie was about to go over when John spoke again, "they had their own language."

Charlie paused, confused for a moment "Linus and Bobby?" he asked rhetorically, "yeah, they were close."

"It should have been me."

At that Charlie stood a bit straighter, "No," he said automatically, "You…"

He was cut off by John continuing as if he had never said anything, "We shouldn't have needed Bobby, and then it would have been me."

Charlie was about to argue that it wasn't John's fault, and that nobody blamed him for what had happened, but he was cut off again. "How do you think she'd take it?"

"She'd be devastated." Charlie answered automatically, surprised at the turn the conversation was taking.

"She'd be upset." John responded nodding, "but she'd be okay." He paused, watching as Stella shook her head at something Basher was saying. "We're not close."

Charlie knew John had always regretted spending so much time in jail while his daughter was growing up. Usually he would say something. That it wasn't John's fault, and he had done the best he could. But he didn't, because he knew John just wanted to get it off his chest.

John drained his glass and placed it on the bar. He was about to go and join the blackjack game Frank was dealing Reuben, but stopped turning back to Charlie. "She'll get married one day, have her own family." He paused, "I hope I'm here to see that."

Charlie didn't realise he was holding his breath, frozen, until he gasped from lack of oxygen. John was already across the room by then, and Charlie silently chided himself for being caught of guard like that. '_You can't just freeze because someone says something you didn't expect.'_

He looked for Stella and saw she was no longer talking to Basher, but standing near the door watching as some of the others played pool.

Checking that no one was watching, he walking over to her quickly, grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

Stella spun around to face Charlie surprised. "What's wrong?" She asked worried. He looked anxious, and kind of worried, which was a very knew looked for him.

"I think we should tell John." He said quickly.

Stella just looked back at him, still surprised, and trying to catch up with what he was thinking. "You want to tell him now?"

She watched as her fiancée nodded slowly, "well not right now," he said "but, yeah, soon." He looked back at her, and could tell straight away that she wasn't going to. "You don't want to."

It wasn't a question, and he looked so confused that Stella rushed to say something. "It's not that I don't want to. I do. But with everything going on right now I think we all need a little time to get our heads around it before opening a whole new can of worms. Is that okay?"

Charlie nodded "You're right." He didn't sound convinced of that, but Stella decided to let it go. "I'm gonna go back inside."

She just nodded, not trusting herself to say the right thing. She barely registered when Charlie dropped a quick kiss on her cheek before she heard the door creak.

Stella stood outside a while longer just thinking about how things would be now. She knew they had to tell her father eventually, it just wasn't a conversation she was looking forward to having.

And then there was the wedding.

When she was younger and had dreamt about her wedding after her mother died, Annie had always been there. Helping her get ready, making sure the veil was straight. In the past week she had been too worried about Linus to really think about how this would change her life.

Of course that thought just led to her wondering where the hell Linus was. He'd been gone for over six hours now and it was almost midnight. Sighing, she looked up and down the road, hoping he'd gotten the note she left on his hotel bed and come by.

Stella looked up at the sky, trying to make out some of the stars. That was probably the only thing she hated about big cities, their lights. Thankfully they were in a quiet part of town and most places were closed with only a few milling up and down the street.

She was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice anyone coming up behind her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped spinning around. She relaxed and smiled when she saw it was only Linus, smiling she gave him a tight hug.

"You okay?" she asked, stepping back.

Linus nodded, not looking at her. "Where is everyone?"

"Inside, nice work with the safe by the way."

He shrugged, "took a few goes, you could have done it in half the time."

"Probably," She answered seriously, "Dad's pretty proud of himself for teaching you though." Linus gave a small laugh at hearing that, and Stella relaxed a little. "Feel any better?"

Linus just shrugged again moving towards the door, "some people wait years for revenge." He answered. "Come one, I'm betting your Dad doesn't know you were out here alone."

She smiled as he opened the door, "I think it's okay if my father and a dozen of his friends are 10 feet away."

Only Saul noticed as they came back inside and gave Linus a small nod that seemed to mean '_good work'._ Stella couldn't help wondering how the hell the rest of them were good thieves if they couldn't even hear the door.

Stella went to get herself a drink while Linus walked over towards the pool table to watch the game.

* * *

The seconds hand on the wall clock had hardly passed midnight when the dor banged open and a man walked in. Danny spun around in his seat watching as the man stood calmly in front of everyone.

No one said anything.

The man turned to look directly and Danny, and the next part happened so quickly that at some point in time everyone in the room would look back on it an wonder if it had been a dream.

They all heard the words, "He said two weeks." Then a loud bang, and the man was gone.

No body moved for a moment, frozen in shock.

Danny jumped up, "Is everyone alright?"

Basher made a small indistinguishable noise and Danny looked over at him, saw he was fine, and followed his gaze to the floor. There was a loud noise of chairs scraped of the floor and feet as everyone reacted.

"Call an ambulance!" Danny told Rusty as he kneeled down in front of the kid.

Stella was next to him, she had Linus's hand in hers and was trying to get him to look at her.

He was still awake and breathing, but there was blood all over the left side of his head, and a pathway of blood down the wall where he had been leaning when his knees went out.

Danny blocked out all the noises behind him and continued trying to get the kid's attention.

Linus blinked slowly and looked right at him, in the eye, Danny didn't think he had done that since just before Matsui. But the kid didn't seem to see him. Turning to his left he looked at Stella and squeezed her hand a little. "It doesn't hurt." He promised her in a very weak voice, making her smile a little through her tears.

Danny heard Rusty say something about an ambulance on its way but wasn't paying attention. Danny wondered if he'd ever noticed just how young Linus was. Well obviously he had known the kid was younger then the rest of the team, and Bobby wasn't so much older then himself that his son could have been to old, but still. He couldn't have been much older than 20. Danny had been doing this job for a long time, and had taken a lot of things from innocent people and never felt regret. But he felt it now. Linus had probably been too young to start off with something like Vegas, and Danny had to wonder if had the kid been anyone but Bobby Caldwell's, if he still would have taken him.

Rusty hadn't wanted him there, and had been very vocal about it. Rusty always knew who to bring, he knew what people would do if put in a certain situation, and he had been certain Linus would fold. But the kid didn't, and no one ever proved Rusty wrong. Maybe that was why Danny liked him so much, why he insisted on actually training him when he had never had even the slightest interest in it before. And now he regretted it.

Danny heard sirens approaching and wished they would just hurry up and get here already. Linus was still looking at Stella, but his breathing was getting shallower. His eyes started to droop but he forced them open under his friends pleas to stay with her. The kid's mouth moved slightly as if he was trying to get out words, and Stella moved closer to hear him.

"They're not dead," he whispered so quietly Danny knew only himself and Stella could hear the words, "She…she's not dead."

Danny didn't know what he was talking about. But Stella sat frozen, before sitting back to look at him again, showing her surprise. "Sorry." He whispered.

Danny went to grab Linus' shoulder as his eyes closed, but was pushed out of the way by a paramedic. Standing back he watched with the others as Linus was loaded onto a stretcher and placed inside the ambulance, Stella went with him. Danny heard John tell the driver something about a random shooting and it came back to him. They had to cover this, luckily Rusty was already on it and they quickly worked out a story with John that they could tell the cops at the hospital, '_or morgue'_ Danny thought.

* * *

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

AN: Hey did anyone notice Ocean's 11 now has it's own section. I'm not sure how this works am I suppose to move this story over there, or just future ones?


	16. And on That Note

**The Ocean's Job**

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Kuriei137, Lali-chan, and whoever the other two were thank you for the feedback. you brought me to and average of 2 reviews per chapter, which I'm very happy about.

* * *

Danny walked into the emergency room and saw John and Stella sitting on a couple of the plastic chairs in the corner. John tried to smile at him as he walked over, but Stella was just sitting, staring at the full cup of what looked like coffee in her hand.

"How is he?" Danny asked John quietly taking the seat next to him.

John just shrugged "They're not sure," he began, his eyes dark and tired "they aren't out of surgery yet, the bullet curved so it is only the far right side of his brain that was harmed, the doctors say if he makes it through surgery he has a good chance of waking up, but they don't know all the effects it's had until he does."

Danny nodded mutely, even though Saul had insisted it wasn't his fault he still couldn't shake off the guilt he felt for what was happening. Realising he had to something he stood up, "I should call the others," he decided "they'll want to know how everything is."

Stella looked up suddenly giving a questioning look to her father, "Has anyone called his grandfather?" she asked "He'd want to know."

Danny looked at Stella surprised, "He has a grandfather?" Stella nodded her gaze once again going blank as she looked back into her cup. "Why wasn't he at the funeral?"

"He was" she answered without looking up, "you just didn't see him."

Danny looked from the girl to her father in confusion. John just looked back at Danny, obviously not intending to give him a clear answer. Realising that he wasn't going to get an answer out of either of them Danny walked a short distance away to call Rusty, telling him what little he knew of the kid's condition.

When he got back Stella was sitting by herself, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed the cup she had been holding no longer in sight. "Who was he talking about?" Danny asked standing in front of her.

Stella looked back at him with confused eyes, "Excuse me?"

"When Linus said '_she_ wasn't dead', who was he talking about?" He repeated more slowly watching Stella's eyes carefully as he tried to gauge her reaction.

Stella gave away nothing though and just shook her head, "I don't know."

Danny would have rolled his eyes in exasperation if he didn't think it so below him. Instead he just slid into the chair next to the girl, still watching her closely. "Yes you do, I saw the look on your face when he said it." Stella looked down at her hands, rubbing them together. "He wasn't talking about his parents was he?"

"No, somewhere inside him it was beginning to become real to him that they were gone," she stopped talking, but Danny's silence egged her on. "I think this whole thing with Benedict and then Steve reminded both of us about something that happened a long time ago, and when he said that I thought of it again." She stopped suddenly and Danny was afraid she was going to start crying. "But that can't be what he meant, they're dead." She finished with such confidence that Danny believed that she truly believed it.

At that point John came back and sat down. No body said anything, but Danny couldn't help feeling that either Stella was leaving something out, or she was wrong.

* * *

The silence in the room felt deafening. Everyone was seated around, most of them nursing a drink in their hands. Most of them had flights home in the next few hours, and whilst John insisted they leave and that he'd call everyone, no one could find it in themselves to move. Danny had gone to the hospital an hour ago to check in with John and Stella, but last time he'd called Linus was still in surgery.

They all looked up as Rusty's phone rang, but lost interest again after realising it was just one of his B-list actor friends.

"This is ridiculous." Reuben announced as Rusty hung up, "We should leave we're not doing anything sitting here."

"He could die," Virgil argued though glad that someone had finally broken the silence over them.

"He could die if we stay." Reuben answered him calmly, seeing the incredulous faces looking at him he continued. "I'll be the first to say I am not very fond of the kid," Turk let out a small bark of laughter, "however," Reuben continued unfazed "Sitting here is not doing anyone any good, and I for one have some important things to do at home."

"Reuben's right." Charlie cut in before anyone could say anything, "Linus wouldn't want you all to put your lives on hold. John did say that you may as well leave. The bullet missed the main parts of the brain, and they have one of the best surgeons in Italy working on him, I'm sure he'll be fine. Anyway even after surgery he could still be out for a few days, Linus would probably rather you leave, he would feel guilty for keeping you all here."

"He will," Saul corrected watching Charlie, "you said 'he _would_ feel guilty', the kid is not dead, he _will_ feel guilty if he keeps us all here. And I happen to agree with you, by all staying we're not doing anything but we are increasing the chances that we will get caught."

There were a few weak protests but eventually, with promises that someone would call them with information, everyone had gone in their separate directions leaving only Charlie and Rusty sitting on either side of the dinning table.

"How long have you been seeing Stella?" Rusty asked suddenly breaking the silence. He laughed when he saw the surprised look on Charlie's face, "You have a lot to learn if you think you can keep secrets here kid."

"Do you like calling people that?" Charlie asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Calling people what?"

"Kid, I heard you call Linus that before and just now you said it to me," Rusty didn't answer. "You know I'm older than Linus and Stella, I wouldn't be much younger than you." Rusty just shrugged slightly, Charlie noticed the movement "Unless it's not about how old people are, do you think I'm too new?"

"You were running your own job, I now you're not that new."

"But Linus is." He dug.

Rusty, never a fan of having a conversation turned on him refused to answer, "You never answered my question, how long have you two been together?"

"About 18 months," the younger man relented, "And he's not as green as he acts."

Rusty walked over to the bar, showing no sign that he heard what Charlie was saying and clearly done with the conversation.

Charlie was about to continue his interrogation when his phone rang and he answered it to find his hysterical fiancé on the other end.

* * *

Danny looked across the breakfast table at Tess. It had been 3 months since L.A. and still things hadn't gone back to normal. He had been in the waiting room with John and Stella when the kid's doctor had come out to speak with them. He said that Linus had come through the surgery well and was still under sedation which they hoped would end the next day so they could get a proper view on how he was.

The next day came and went but Linus did not stir. John had insisted that Danny, Rusty and Charlie go home.

Tess had been so relieved to see him, she saw him coming and met him at the door, only noticing after a few minutes his pale complexion. She had been really upset after hearing what had happened. Tess had always liked Linus, more so then the other guys. Danny thought it was the innocence, unlike a lot of the others Linus was able to hold up a good conversation without talking about work, a feat which even to this day Danny found he sometimes had some trouble with.

The phone rang and both heads shot up. John had promised to call them today. Exactly 3 months ago, I week after the shooting, the doctors had declared that Linus was in a coma, and whilst he was breathing for himself, and many of his organs seemed to be working they were unsure if he would ever wake up. Before Danny had arrived in Chicago for Bobby and Annie's funeral the lawyer had Linus write up a quick will. John had told Danny that the Caldwells had left some money to Stella and everything else went to Linus. Linus had left everything to Stella, including any decisions about what to do if something should happen to him.

Today, the official waiting period for coma patients ended and Stella had to decide whether to pull the plug. After a quick reassuring smile from Tess, Danny lifted the phone to his ear.

"Danny?" John asked through the ear piece.

"Yes, what's happening?"

"The doctors want to take him off," John told him "all his organs are still working, and he's not brain dead, but they don't think he has much chance of ever coming back."

"You're taking him off." Danny could almost feel his heart drop, the feeling of guilty still as strong as it had been that day in the hospital. Tears welled in Tess' eyes, but she wiped them clear before they could fall.

"No. Stella and his Grandfather wouldn't allow it." John reassured him quickly, "Linus will be moved to a smaller hospital, whilst the chances of him waking up again are small Stella is adamant that he can. They want to talk to her again in two years, they say if he's still out then only a miracle will bring him back."

"Alright," Danny nodded slowly "Thank you, I'll call Rusty, and Saul, they'll want to know"

"Great," John stopped "You know that none of this is your fault don't you. Linus has never been peer pressured into anything in his life. This isn't any of your faults."

"Thank you for calling." After a quick goodbye Danny hung up the phone. "They aren't going to unplug him." He assured his wife, but it did nothing to stop to tears which were now freely making their way down her face.

"He still has a chance?" She asked quietly.

Danny did not answer her he knew life had too get back to normal. They had all been waiting for news for too long, and who knew how much longer they would be waiting. Most of the others had moved on, they hadn't forgotten or anything, they just managed to not dwell on it as much. The Malloys had opened another branch of their garage. Reuben was looking into opening a new casino. Saul had gone back to his comfortable retirement with Gloria, who as far as Danny knew, still didn't know about Saul's past. Yen had gotten back into the circus and was now part of Cirque Du Soleil. Livingston bought a house in Detroit and was working with the police, or FBI or something of the sort. Basher had done a few small jobs with random crews across the country. Frank had continued with his chain of manicure and pedicure salons including opening a few in some of Rusty's hotels, which he stubbornly refused to sell, no matter how many times he was told they'd do better without him. Even John and his team had managed to gain some sort of normalcy. Lyle entered some 'WIRED' competition, Left-Ear moved off to Spain to do something with shoes, and Rob was in jail again for setting another 'longest police chase' record. John was spending time in Chicago wanting to spend time with Stella. Charlie hadn't run another job, but he and Stella announced their engagement, and were holding off the wedding for a while in the hopes that Linus would be there.

Realising that just sitting at home with Tess wasn't helping him, Danny wondered if he could get some of the guys together for a job. It would have to be small, if too many of the guys were there the silence that should have been filled with Linus' incessant questions would be too obvious. Or he could call Rusty and they'd find some new guys. Hadn't he read something in the paper about an art collection being moved a week or two ago? Knowing that Tess kept all the old papers in a neat pile in the back storage of the house he went looking for his article.

The End

* * *

Authors Note:

REVIEW!!!!

Please tell me what you think.

Wow that took a while, can't believe it's over. Sorry it's been so long since I last updated, in my defence schools been crazy and my laptop died (however they both happened in the last month so it's not much defence)

I have not decided whether or not to write a sequel yet. I have ideas but if I do I want to have it Written before I start posting so I don't have huge gaps between posts like I did in this one.


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